In 2016, more than 5 million people worked for France’s public services. It may be stated that France had a strong solidarity-based conception of society. Its national motto “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” (“liberty, equality, fraternity”) and its well-known welfare state have made France the Western European country with the largest public sector workforce. Since 2010, the compensation of public sector employees in France has gradually increased. It has reached 124.4 billion euros in 2017.

Civil servants in France

Ministries were the public area with the highest number of governmental employees in France. The public sector with the second highest number was local public services with almost 1.9 million civil servants. When looking at the distribution of the governmental employees in France in 2016, there is only a small difference between the number of public servants working in French ministries and local civil servants; in 2016 35.4 percent of French governmental employees worked in Ministries compared to 34.4 percent working in local civil services. We will most likely see further shifts in this distribution – the number of state civil service employees is declining since 2015 while the number of territorial civil servants stayed roughly the same since then.

French Public spending

In 2017, a study from the International Monetary Fund found that France was the member state of the European Union with the highest public spending ratio. Thus, France’s public spending increases again since 2011, after a sharp decline from 2010 to 2011, reaching more than 492.5 billion euros in 2017. In 2019, the top-three spending areas of the French state were tax repayments and abatement, education and defense.

Europe's oceans, seas and coasts are a major driver for the European economy, creating both jobs and value. Blue economy is economic activities related to the oceans, seas and coasts and covers a wide range of interlinked established and emerging sectors. This map shows employment information regarding extraction (i.e., fisheries and aquaculture) and commercialisation of marine living resources in the European Union. It displays the percentage of people working in the sector compared to the overall employees in the blue economy per Member State. In each country, you can find information regarding the employment in each sub-sector (aquaculture, capture fisheries, processing and distribution), the evolution of the overall employment in marine living resources since 2009 and the exact number of persons employed in the sector each year.

This dataset provides values for GOVERNMENT SPENDING TO GDP reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

The Netherlands had the highest employment rate among European Union countries in 2024, at 82.5 percent, while Iceland had the highest employment rate among all European countries. The second highest employment rate in the EU was that of Malta, which had an employment rate of 78.4 percent. Italy reported the lowest employment rate in the EU at 62.3 percent.

In Norway, over 30 percent of the population was employed in the government sector as of 2019. In general, Nordic countries employed the largest share of the working force in their governments. On the other hand, the employment in Japanese government constituted 5.89 percent of the total working population in 2019.

This dataset provides values for RETIREMENT AGE MEN reported in several countries. The data includes current values, previous releases, historical highs and record lows, release frequency, reported unit and currency.

The number of people employed as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) professionals in the European has risen by around 70 percent over the past two decades, as digital technologies and services have become a more vital part of the European economy. As of 2023, almost ten million people work directly as ICT professionals in the Union, with Germany providing over 2.1 million of these professionals and France providing 1.4 million. Other prominent countries for the ICT industry include Italy, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, and Sweden.

The United States was, by far, the country with the highest number of foreigners in its workforce. In 2024, there were nearly 34 million foreign-born citizens in the U.S. workforce. Germany had the second highest foreign labor force at over nine million, followed by the United Kingdom and Canada. A high number of the countries on the list are EU members.

In 2043, there were a total of approximately 1.9 million individuals working at domestic banks across the 27 European Union member states. Germany had by far the highest number of bank employees. It was followed by France, with over 400,000 employees in the banking sector. Latvia reported the lowest employee figure, with hardly more than 5,000 people working in the sector.

The statistic reflects the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in member states of the European Union in November 2024. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in Spain in November 2024 was 11.2 percent.The unemployment rate represents the share of the unemployed in all potential employees available to the job market. Unemployment rates in the EU The unemployment rate is an important measure of a country or region’s economic health, and despite unemployment levels in the European Union falling slightly from a peak in early 2013 , they remain high, especially in comparison to what the rates were before the worldwide recession started in 2008. This confirms the continuing stagnation in European markets, which hits young job seekers particularly hard as they struggle to compete against older, more experienced workers for a job, suffering under jobless rates twice as high as general unemployment. Some companies, such as Microsoft and Fujitsu, have created thousands of jobs in some of the countries which have particularly dire unemployment rates, creating a beacon of hope. However, some industries such as information technology, face the conundrum of a deficit of qualified workers in the local unemployed work force, and have to hire workers from abroad instead of helping decrease the local unemployment rates. This skills mismatch has no quick solution, as workers require time for retraining to fill the openings in the growing science-, technology-, or engineering-based jobs, and too few students choose degrees that would help them obtain these positions. Worldwide unemployment also remains high, with the rates being worst in the Middle East and North Africa. Estimates by the International Labour Organization predict that the problem will stabilize in coming years, but not improve until at least 2017.

The construction sector employed over *** million people in the United States in April 2025, which was the highest number since the 21st century. There is a strong correlation between the amount of investment in construction and demand for workers. For example, in the years following the 2008 financial crisis, the value of new construction put in place in the U.S. decreased, which also translated in lower employee numbers in the construction sector. How to improve the job shortage? Many contractors have reported difficulty finding skilled workers recently. However, that has not only been the case in the construction industry, but in many other sectors of the economy too. For example, U.S. restaurants reported shortages in different positions in the past years. Although there are many reasons why workers may quit, in general, an increase in the salaries of construction employees may help in reducing the number of resignations. Worker shortages in Europe The United States is not the only country where companies have been facing these challenges. Thus, the percentage of French infrastructure companies reporting staff shortage peaked in 2019 and 2023. However, there are certain industries that struggle finding new employees more than construction. Social and care work had the highest skilled labor shortages in Germany.

The statistic shows the seasonally adjusted youth unemployment rate in EU member states as of November 2024. The source defines youth unemployment as unemployment of those younger than 25 years. In November 2024, the seasonally adjusted youth unemployment rate in Spain was at 26.6 percent. Youth unemployment rate in EU member states Unemployment is a crucial economic factor for a country; youth unemployment is often examined separately because it tends to be higher than unemployment in older age groups. It comprises the unemployment figures of a country’s labor force aged 15 to 24 years old (i.e. the earliest point at which mandatory school education ends). Typically, teenagers and those in their twenties who are fresh out of education do not find jobs right away, especially if the country’s economy is experiencing difficulties, as can be seen above. Additionally, it also tends to be higher in emerging markets than in industrialized nations. Worldwide, youth unemployment figures have not changed significantly over the last decade, nor are they expected to improve in the next few years. Youth unemployment is most prevalent in the Middle East and North Africa, even though these regions report high unemployment figures regardless (Zimbabwe and Turkmenistan are among the countries with the highest unemployment rates in the world, for example), and are also highly populated areas with a rather weak infrastructure, compared to industrialized regions. In the European Union and the euro area, unemployment in general has been on the rise since 2008, which is due to the economic crisis which caused bankruptcy and financial trouble for many employers, and thus led to considerable job loss, less job offerings, and consequently, to a rise of the unemployment rate. Older workers are struggling to find new jobs despite their experience, and young graduates are struggling to find new jobs, because they have none. All in all, the number of unemployed persons worldwide is projected to rise, this is not down to the economic crisis alone, but also the industrial automation of processes previously performed by workers, as well as rising population figures.

The country with the highest minimum wage rate in Europe during the first half of 2025 was Luxembourg, with a minimum wage of 2638 euros. Ireland, the Netherlands, and Germany were the countries with the next highest minimum wages, all above 2000 euros a month, while Albania, Bulgaria, and Montenegro had the lowest minimum wages in the same period.

This statistic shows the public spending ratio in the member states of the European Union in 2024. All figures are estimates. The public spending ratio is the ratio of state expenditures to the gross domestic product (GDP). In 2024, Belgium's public spending ratio amounted to about 54.32 percent of the GDP.

Microsoft Corporation is a major international technology company, with around ******* full-time employees in the United States in fiscal year 2024. Another ******* of Microsoft's full-time employees are located outside the company's home market bringing the total number of full-time employees worldwide to around *******. The employees of Microsoft's are distributed over four main business units - operations, product research and development, sales and marketing, and general and administration.

Unemployment in the European Union has reached its low point in the twenty-first century in 2025. The share of the labour force out of work was slighly under 5.8 percent between January and March of that year, a marked decrease from its most recent peak of 7.8 percent in the Summer of 2020. While the jobs recovery has been strong in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic in the EU, this number is still far above the remarkably low rate in the United States, which has reached 4.3 percent in 2024. Nevertheless, this recent decline is a positive development for the EU countries, many of which have long suffered from chronic unemployment issues. In some regional labour markets in the EU, the issue is now less of people who can't find work, but employers who cannot find employees, leading to labour shortages. The sick men of Europe Several EU member states have long had high unemployment rates, with the large numbers of people in long-term unemployment being particularly concerning. Italy, France, Greece, Spain, and Portugal have all had double-digit unemployment rates for significant amounts of time during this period, with the ability of people to freely migrate to other EU countries for work only marginally decreasing this. While these countries have long dealt with these issues due to their declining legacy industries and the struggle of competing in a liberalized, globalized economy, their unemployment rates reached their highest points following the global financial crisis, great recession, and Eurozone crisis. These interconnected crises led to a period of prolonged stagnation in their economies, with unemployment reaching as high as 25 percent in Greece, the worst affected economy.

The workforce of PwC increased steadily between 2013 and 2022. In 2022, the company employed approximately 128,000 people in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC)

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is a professional services company with headquarters in London, United Kingdom. The company, in its current state, was formed in 1998 when Price Waterhouse merged with Coopers & Lybrand. PwC is one of the so-called “Big Four” audit firms that offer audit, tax, assurance, advisory, consulting, actuarial, legal and corporate finance services. The other companies of the Big Four are Deloitte, Ernst & Young and KPMG. In 2021, PwC was the second biggest of the four in terms of revenue with roughly 45 billion U.S. dollars. Deloitte topped the list, with revenue amounting to 50 billion U.S. dollars in 2021.

As of October 2022, PricewaterhouseCoopers operates offices and firms in 152 countries and employs almost 328,000 people. The majority of PwC’s employees work in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Since 2010, the number of employees has seen a year-on-year increase.

PwC’s revenue has also seen growth over the past few years, from 22.1 billion U.S. dollars in the 2006 fiscal year to more than 50 billion U.S. dollars in the 2022 fiscal year. The Americas generated the most revenue - roughly 21 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. PwC generated approximately 40 percent of its revenue through the assurance services segment in 2022, reaching 18 billion U.S. dollars.

Shell, former Royal Dutch Shell, employed approximately 96,000 people worldwide in 2024. Shell is one of the top six publicly traded oil and gas companies (also known as ‘Big Oil) worldwide, operating in every segment of the oil and gas industry. It is also one of the largest companies worldwide by revenue. The company is headquartered in London, United Kingdom and was established through a merger of United Kingdom-based Shell Transport and Trading Company and the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company of the Netherlands. Shell - the global employer Shell employs people all around the world. In 2024, the majority of its workforce was located in Asia, at 36,000. Following Asia was Europe, with 30,000 employees, then North America with 23,000 employees. Africa had 3,000 employees. South America had the least number of employees, at 2,000. Oil and gas sector employment Russian majority state-owned gas giant Gazprom is the biggest oil and gas employer worldwide. In 2023, it employed around 492,000 people. Gazprom was followed by PetroChina, which is the publicly traded daughter of state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.

The total number of individuals employed at banks across the European Union member states dropped significantly during the period between 2008 and 2023, despite a slight increase in 2023. Overall, as of the end of 2023, there were approximately 1.77 million individuals working at banks across Europe.

Among European Union countries in March 2025, Spain had the highest unemployment rate at 10.9 percent, followed by Finland at 9.4 percent. By contrast, Czechia has the lowest unemployment rate in Europe, at 2.6 percent. The overall rate of unemployment in the European Union was 5.8 percent in the same month - a historical low-point for unemployment in the EU, which had been at over 10 percent for much of the 2010s.