Annual estimates

Since 2007, the annual employment estimates are entirely based on a synthesis of administrative data. For salaried people, the data come from social declarations made by employers (DADS then DSN), supplemented by data from the Public Service Employee Information System (Siasp) and those of individual employers. For self-employed, the sources used are the files of the Mutualité Sociale Agricole (MSA) for those affiliated to the agricultural regime and the files of the Agence centrale des organismes de sécurité sociale (Acoss) for the others. The provisional annual estimates are based mainly on an estimate from the quarterly employment estimates.

Quarterly estimates

Quarterly employment estimates are obtained by applying quarterly changes to annual employment levels. These quarterly trends are calculated from sources of administrative origin, which are also used in the calculation of the provisional annual estimates. Quarterly estimates are based on annual employment levels up to the latest provisional estimate. The "flash" national employment estimate, published 45 days after the end of the quarter, is based on a fast-track processing of the DSN. Since the first quarter of 2017, the national employment estimates published 70 days after the end of the quarter and the localized employment estimates published 90 days after the end of the quarter have been co-produced by Acoss, Dares and INSEE. Acoss provides quarterly evolutions on the private field. The DARES produces the data on temporary employment. INSEE is in charge of calculating changes in agriculture, the civil service and individual employers.