Informations Rapides · 20 March 2026 · n° 65

In Q4 2025, payroll employment was stable or virtually stable in more than half of the regions Localized employment and unemployment rates (by region and department) - fourth quarter 2025

Between the end of September 2025 and the end of December 2025, payroll employment in France as a whole (excluding Mayotte) was virtually stable (-0.1%) after being stable in the third quarter of 2025.

In Q4 2025, payroll employment was stable or virtually stable in nine regions compared with the third quarter of 2025. It fell in seven regions, and notably by 0.3% in Centre-Val de Loire, Hauts-de-France and Pays de la Loire. It rose by 0.3% in Guyane.

At the departmental level, payroll employment was virtually stable in 41 departments compared with the third quarter of 2025. It fell by more than 0.2% in more than a third of departments, with a maximum decline of 0.7% in Oise. On the other hand, payroll employment increased by at least 0.2% in eleven departments. The increase was greater than 0.4% in the Hautes-Alpes (+0.5%), in Aube (+0.6%) and in Marne (+0.9%), with these last two departments have seen a rebound, partly due to the sharp fall in salaried employment recorded at the end of the third quarter, caused by the particularly early grape harvest, which took place before the end of September.

At the national level, in Q4 2025, total payroll employment declined compared to the fourth quarter of 2024 (-0.2 %), whereas it had been stable between Q4 2023 and Q4 2024.

At the end of December 2025, payroll employment was at least 0.2% lower than a year earlier in eleven regions. The sharpest declines were seen in two metropolitan regions, Nouvelle-Aquitaine (-0.5%) and Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (-0.6%) and in Guadeloupe (-0.6%). In three regions, payroll employment increased year on year: Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (+0.2%), La Réunion (+0.3%) and Guyane (+1.0%).

Payroll employment fell in six out of ten departments. It declined by more than 0.6% in twenty departments, all in metropolitan France. Payroll employment fell most sharply in Orne (-1.7%), Charente (-1.5%) and Territoire-de-Belfort (-1.4%).

Conversely, salaried employment rose by between 0.2% and 1.4% in eighteen departments, mainly in the south and south-east of mainland France and in two overseas departments, La Réunion (+0.3%) and Guyane (+1.0%).

In the fourth quarter of 2025, across the whole country (excluding Mayotte), the ILO unemployment rate rose over the year (+0.6 points). It stood at 7.9 % of the labor force.

Between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the fourth quarter of 2025, the unemployment rate rose in all regions of mainland France and in two overseas regions. In seven regions, the increases were greater than 0.6 points, with the highest recorded in Hauts-de-France (+0.8 points), Guadeloupe (+1.5 points) and Guyane (+2.2 points). Over the past year, the unemployment rate has fallen in two regions: -0.5 percentage points in La Réunion and -1 percentage point in Martinique.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, the unemployment rate was highest in the French overseas regions, ranging from 12.5% in Martinique to 17.5% in Guyane. In metropolitan France, three regions recorded an unemployment rate higher than the national average (7.9%): Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (8.4%), Occitanie (9.4%) and Hauts-de-France (9.5%). Conversely, the unemployment rate was lowest in Bretagne (6.4%) and in the Pays de la Loire (6.5%). In these two regions, the unemployment rates in all departments were below the national average. The situation within other regions coulb be much more varied. For example, in Île-de-France, where the unemployment rate for the region as a whole (7.6%) was lower than the national average: it was lower in Paris (6.1%) and in Hauts-de-Seine (6.8%), and conversely higher in Seine-Saint-Denis (10.8%). The contrast was even more pronounced in Occitanie, between Lozère, the department with the second-lowest unemployment rate (4.8%), and the Pyrénées-Orientales, where it was the highest in metropolitan France (12.7%).