Insee Focus · January 2021 · n° 223

Nearly three-quarters of craftsmen, tradesmen, shopkeepers and heads of business are men

Construction craftsmen, cab drivers, garage owners, real estate agents, self-employed beauticians or hairdressers, shopkeepers, restaurant owners, company managers or CEOs: in 2019, 1.8 million employed people were craftsmen, tradesmen, shopkeepers and heads of business, representing 6.7% of employed people in France.

After declining in the 1990s (from 8.3% in 1990 to 6.1% in 2002), their share in employment has recovered slightly. In 2019, 71% of them were men and 44% were 50 years old or older.

They usually worked more than the employed population as a whole and two-thirds of them worked on Saturdays.