The French civil service employed 5.5 million people in 2010

At 31 December 2010, 5.5 million people-including 143,000 employed under subsidized contracts-worked in one of the three divisions of the French civil service. “Category A” employees form the majority in the central-government civil service, while “Category C” employees are the largest group in public hospitals and local government. Women account for 60% of the total civil-service workforce. On average, employees are older in local government and younger in public hospitals. Tenured workers are, on average, older than non-tenured staff (including subsidized job contracts), who make up one-quarter of the total. Nine out of ten male employees and more than 70% of female employees work full-time. More than one-third of part-time employees work 80% of full-time hours.