Invest in France - Workforce
Workforce Summary
France has the world’s third highest hourly productivity rate (Source: International Labour Organisation). France’s hourly and annual productivity rates per worker beat the European average by 20%.
Education and Qualification
France has a free education system, which is considered as one of the best in the world. The Financial Times has recently rated five of France’s business schools (HEC Paris, INSEAD, ESCP Europe, EM Lyon and Essec) as among the top 12 in Europe.
France is fourth in the world for number of foreign students attending higher education courses; in 2008 this figure stood at 270,000.
Availability
France has over 26 million people in employment (2009).
Labour Costs
The average annual salary in France is €30,228 per household (2.3 persons per household). Source: salairemoyen.com
Since October 2007, employees in France are paid 25% more for their overtime hours (over the legal 35 hours per week). These hours are also exempt from tax and social security for employees, whilst employers get a reduction in social security for each employee overtime hour.
Training and Recruitment Initiatives
In the past few years, France has introduced numerous recruitment reforms. These include:
- A ‘defined objective’ fixed-term (18 to 36 months) contract has been put into place for engineers and managers.
- The trial period for new employees has been increased to four months for skilled workers and to eight months for managers.
- A ‘termination by agreement’ process enables the employer and employee to end an employment contract by mutual consent, as well as being exempt from tax and social security contributions.
Other
France allows employer trade unions to make decisions, at a company level, with regards to working hours. This includes making changes to employee and employer overtime hours (which can be increased or decreased). For more information on France’s employment regulations, please click here.
