Employment in civil service in 2016 Employment increasing, except at the territorial level

In France, at the end of 2016, 5.7 million employees worked in civil service. Headcount increased by 0.4% after stabilizing in 2015. Employment is increasing in State civil service and in hospital civil service. In contrast, it fell by 0.4% in regional civil service, confirming the turning point seen in 2015 (+0.1%) after several years of sustained growth. The number of subsidised contracts fell in all three segments. Excluding subsidised contracts, public employment increased by 0.5%. The annual full-time equivalent employment volume increased by 0.3%, i.e. less than the year-end workforce.

The percentage of civil servants amongst government workers is almost stable, while that of contract staff increased slightly. Lastly, the increase in public employment in 2016 occurred as +4.2% increase in the number of incoming employees, higher than the number of exits (+1.6%).