At the end of 2021, 29.5 million people were in employment in France, of which 26.4 million were salaried employees. Employment has rebounded by 965,000 after having fallen by 175,000 during the first year of the health crisis. It is now well above its pre-crisis level at the end of 2019. The proportion of people working part-time has continued to fall, and the proportion of people in underemployment has fallen significantly. The skill level of jobs has increased again, while the share of time-limited jobs has rebounded.

As a result of the rebound in employment, in 2021 unemployment and its halo decreased together, by a total of 0.8 percentage points: 10.4% of 15-64 year olds were unemployed and wanted to work in 2021, the lowest level since 2011.

The activity rate also resumed its interrupted growth in 2019 and in 2021 reached its highest level since INSEE began measuring as defined by the ILO (1975), increasing for all age groups.

In 2021, the average wage per capita rebounded significantly in the private sector, even exceeding its pre-health crisis trajectory at the end of the year, and continued to rise in the public sector. In real terms, however, these increases were largely mitigated by the resurgence of inflation since the autumn of 2021. Hourly labour costs virtually stagnated in 2021, following a strong acceleration in 2020.