In the City’s Urban Cohesion Policy neighbourhoods, which are home to people the furthest from employment, the growing number, in recent years, of these self-employed businesses raises questions about the types and conditions of the jobs created.
This study, carried out in collaboration with the City of Paris Department of Democracy, Citizens and Territories - DDCT - and the Organisations for the Collection of Social Security and Family Benefit Contributions - URSSAF Ile-de-France - aims to heighten awareness of self-employed - auto-entrepreneurs - in priority neighbourhoods of the City of Paris’ Urban Cohesion Policy. This self-employed scheme is today used by the majority of freelance workers. Although it has many advantages in terms of facilitating business start-ups, it offers a sometimes fragile work status as well as unstable working conditions.
Based on a selection of data made available by URSSAF Ile-de-France, the study focuses on these self-employed - auto-entrepreneur - businesses in Paris City’s Urban Cohesion Policy neighbourhoods, and compares them with those in other areas of Paris, with the aim of understanding their specific characteristics in terms of trends, profiles, job sectors, income and job security.
In 2021, 149,600 self-employed - auto-entrepreneurs - were registered as having active administrative accounts in Paris, 21% of which were based in priority neighbourhoods of the City’s Urban Cohesion Policy or active-watch neighbourhoods (compared with 16% of the working population). This number has grown more in priority neighbourhoods than the Parisian average and their proportion among freelance workers is higher (81% compared with 54% in Paris as a whole). Among business accounts, 58% declare a positive turnover in priority neighbourhoods compared with 67% in Paris, indicating greater difficulty in maintaining the level of work. Transport and storage jobs are the most numerous, particularly postal and courier services, including deliveries. Self-employed - auto-entrepreneurs - have a specific profile in priority neighbourhoods: they are often male, relatively young, more likely to be in the retail sector and offering slightly more multi-services. Their level of income is on average 19% lower than the Parisian self-employed - auto-entrepreneur - average. The health crisis has had a greater impact on these self-employed in priority neighbourhoods than in Paris generally, with a sharper drop of incomes in 2020 and a greater number of businesses being closed down.
