Key characteristics of employment in banking – stable, highly skilled,diverse and inclusive – strengthened in 2024

In 2024, French banks continued to recruit massively, with 38,600 new hires, while observing a decline in the number of departures (-6%). The number of work-study trainees continued to grow, with 19,800 at end-2024 (+0.5%).

With 373,600 employees (Permanent + fixed-term + work-study employees), including 190,100 for AFB banks, the banking sector recorded a moderate decline in its workforce of -0.7%, after experiencing an increase in 2023. It accounts for nearly 1.7% of private salaried employment in France and reinforces its hallmarks of filling long-term, highly qualified, mixed and inclusive jobs.

A dynamic sector and permanent jobs

With 373,600 employees at end-2024 in banks that are members of the French Banking Federation (FBF), representing nearly 1.7% of private-sector salaried employment, the French banking sector is a major employer.

In 2024, French banks hired 38,600 employees, 18,600 of which were in AFB banks. Of these 18,600, 14,200 are permanent hires, i.e. more than 76% of recruitments (vs 66% in 2017 and a national average of 16%). Permanent contracts account for over 98% of jobs in the sector.

Turnover fell further in 2024 (8.4%) compared with 2023, still well below the national level (21%).

Skilled, diverse, and gender-balanced jobs across France

With women making up nearly 57% of its workforce, banking is a sector that promotes parity: women account for 49.5% of new hires, with one in two is hired at managerial level. 50.5% of managers are women, up slightly compared with 2023 and up 2.2 points since 2018. Women account for 59.2% of promotions.

It is also a sector where jobs are skilled (managers make up 73% of the workforce, +18.1 points since 2012) and open to people with different types of degrees. Permanent hires have anywhere from 4-5 years of higher education or more (54%) to 2-3 years of higher education (36%) to less than 2 years of higher education (10%).

Customer relations business lines account for nearly 56% (+2 points) of permanent contract hires, reflecting the banks’ growth momentum. These jobs are located throughout France, as a local footprint is the hallmark of French banks and an important component of their relationship-based model. Banks are maintaining their profile as high-tech companies, with a high proportion of recruitments in the IT sector (12.9%). Recruitments in compliance and risk remained stable at 8.8%, while those in the back office (3.9%) saw a slight decrease (-0.6 points).

A responsible and engaged sector

In 2024, French banks further increased their number of apprentices, rising from 19,700 to 19,800, while maintaining a 38% conversion rate within the host company. The integration rate of work-study participants in the banking sector is 85% (including continuing apprenticeship studies).

In the AFB branch alone, there are 10,800 work-study participants (vs 10,400 work-study participants in 2023), as well as 6,800 young people working as interns and 490 young people participating in the Volontariat International à l’Etranger (international business internship) programme.At the same time, nearly one in two recruits are under the age of 30, underlining the desire of banks to offer dynamic and varied career paths. The promotion rate therefore remains high at 8.3%, particularly among non-managers at 13.3%.

Partnerships (with APELS (French Agency for Education through Sport) and each One) play a role in integrating young people from disadvantaged neighbourhoods and skilled refugees into the workplace.

Banks’ policies on older workers, often as part of dedicated collective agreements, have helped to gradually increase the retirement age, which was 62.9 years in 2024 (+2 points since 2014). The proportion of new hires aged 50 and over accounted for 6.6% of new hires, up 2.2 points compared with 2018.

Maya Atig, Chief Executive Officer of the AFB and the FBF, comments: “In 2024, banks maintained active recruitment policies while maintaining high-quality and high-level job standards, ensuring parity and offering promotional career paths. As major players in training and integration, banks have devoted 4.3% of their payroll to training their employees, i.e. more than six million hours, representing 34 hours of training per year and per employee, not to mention their 198,00 work-study trainees, more than one in four of whom come from priority neighbourhoods in the city. These figures demonstrate the extent to which banks across the country are actively involved in integration and development.”