In the market economy, one employee in eight works in a firm under foreign control

At the end of 2013, 7.10 million employees in France worked in a multinational enterprise in the non-agricultural market sector, of which 1.85 million in a company under foreign control. Employment under foreign control decreased by 12% between 2008 and 2013. This decline occurred primarily in 2009; the workforce remained virtually stable thereafter.

The employees of foreign multinational enterprises worked most often in industry: this was the case for 37% of them in 2013. However, this proportion fell by 6 percentage points in five years, with trade benefitting.

Foreign multinational companies operating in France were controlled mainly by the countries of the European Union (EU), the United States and Switzerland: firms in these countries employed 1.13 million, 400,000 and 150,000 employees in France, respectively. The number of employees working in multinational companies controlled by BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) remained small. However, it increased by 31% between 2008 and 2013, while at the same time decreasing for firms in the EU and US.

Entities of foreign-controlled multinational companies operating in France were most often intermediate-sized companies: more than half of their jobs were concentrated in this company category. Notably, intermediate-sized companies were over-represented in industrial employment under foreign control.