Insee Première · October 2025 · n° 2080

Difficulties with reading or arithmetic skills hindered professional integration, especially for women and people with few or no qualifications

In 2022, in France, 10% of people aged 18 to 64 had difficulties with reading and writing and 12% with arithmetic skills. These difficulties had consequences for their working lives, both in terms of labour market integration and employment conditions.

People with difficulties in literacy or numeracy were less included in the labour market: six out ten were in employment compared with more than height out ten who did not have such difficulties. Difficulties with basic skills penalised people with a fewer education level more than those with a secondary level of education. Among people with few or no qualifications who had difficulties with reading or arithmetic skills, five out ten were not employed. Furthermore, women with literacy difficulties found it much harder than men to enter the labour market: 42% were employed compared with 78% of men in the same situation.

Whether they had few or no qualifications or had completed secondary education, people with difficulties in reading or arithmetic were overrepresented in low-skilled jobs. Among employed people with few or no qualifications, 57% of those with difficulties in numeracy and 52% of those with difficulties in literacy were in unskilled positions, compared with 38% of those without difficulties.