🏠🧑🦳 In 2023, 466,000 home helpers are working in France outside Mayotte. Among them, 90% report standing for long periods and 83% perform painful or tiring movements. Drees highlights the arduousness of the profession, the time constraints, and the differences depending on the employer.
.For field actors and decision-makers, this study provides numerical benchmarks to better understand the constraints of the home helper profession and the differences depending on the employer. It can inform a shared diagnosis on the prevention of occupational risks, the organisation of schedules, and support for teams. Without proposing operational solutions, it provides a documented basis to inform discussions and decisions aimed at improving working conditions.
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1️⃣ SUMMARY
In 2023, 466,000 people work as home helpers in their main employment in France, excluding Mayotte; 94% are women. They support individuals experiencing loss of autonomy or disability in daily activities, without providing care. Part-time work applies to 74% of these professionals, compared to 17% of all employed individuals. Despite this reduced workload, days can be marked by fragmented interventions, movements and variable hours. One fifth of the profession is in a situation of underemployment.
The physical strain is particularly high: 90% report standing for long periods, 83% performing painful or tiring movements and 73% having experienced pain in the last twelve months. While the indicators of mental load are less unfavourable than for all employees, the emotional aspect remains significant: 27% report often or almost daily feeling upset or moved at work. Autonomy in task organisation is also accompanied by professional isolation: 30% have no colleagues.
Situations differ depending on the employer. Employees of private employers more often have chosen and regular hours and report less pressure, but work fewer hours and are more isolated. Despite a strong sense of usefulness — 91% believe they always or often do a useful job — only 39% of home helpers feel capable of doing the same job until retirement and 23% wish to change professions in the next three years. The study is based on the 2022 to 2024 collections of the Insee Employment survey and the TraCov 2 survey conducted by Dares in 2023.
2️⃣ WHAT YOU NEED TO REMEMBER
1️⃣ A marked physical hardship. In 2023, 90% of home carers must remain standing for long periods (52% of all employees), 83% perform painful or tiring movements (44%) and 66% carry or move heavy loads (40%). 73% report pain over the last twelve months, compared to 59% (p. 4). FINDING.
2️⃣ A very frequent part-time work, with a share of underemployment. In 2023, 74% of home carers work part-time, compared to 17% of all employed individuals. Among part-time home carers, 32% report not having found full-time employment. Furthermore, 20% of the entire profession is underemployed, meaning they work less than wished under the conditions defined by the survey. Schedules vary from week to week for 37% of home carers, compared to 22% of all employed individuals (p. 2-3).
3️⃣ Different situations depending on the employer. Home carers employed by a public or private structure, including non-profit, report more often working "always" or "often" under pressure than those employed directly by an individual: 18% versus 6%. They are also more likely to be "often" or "every day or almost" disturbed or moved at work: 34% versus 14%. Finally, 34% feel capable of doing the same job until retirement, compared to 46% of employees of individual employers (p. 5).
3️⃣ TO ACT
The document is a statistical study: it presents findings and does not formulate any recommendations, nor planned actions, nor requested actions. No directly applicable action is proposed by the document (p. 1-6).
1️⃣ Consult the complete data in open data (case 2: tool explicitly mentioned). The complete data on working conditions and the characteristics of jobs for social professionals are available on the Drees open data site (p. 6). Additional tables are available in the data associated with the study (p. 2, note 3).
2️⃣ Deepen with the cited studies (case 2: resources explicitly mentioned). The section "For more information" notably cites the Dares Analyses study no. 53 (2021) on psychosocial risks for home care employees and the Studies and Results no. 1341 (2025) on the salary income of home care workers (p. 6).
3️⃣ Practical Suggestions in Health: use the figures from the study (p. 2-5), citing the source and the year of the data (2023), as a basis for discussion in a professional risk prevention approach or quality of life at work for a home care service. The document does not itself formulate this proposal.
4️⃣ 3 PRACTICAL QUESTIONS
1️⃣ Why are full-time contracts rare? According to the document, a full-time intervention, to which travel between homes is added, can generate a working hours range that is difficult to sustain and may exceed the legal framework; interventions are also concentrated on specific time slots (p. 2).
2️⃣ Which parts of the body are affected by pain? Mainly the back (77% of home care workers reporting pain) and the shoulders, arms, wrists or hands (61%) (p. 4).
3️⃣ Are home care workers isolated in their work? 30% have no colleagues, which is ten times more than the overall employees; the proportion is 66% among employees of private employers, compared to 8% for those in the public and private sectors (p. 3-4).
5️⃣ TO GO FURTHER
1️⃣ Blog Practices in Health : other references on the theme of home care - https://www.pratiquesensante.com/blog/tag/aide-a-domicile-92
2️⃣ External resource : INRS, "TutoPrév' welcome — Home care and in establishments", brochure ED 4463, June 2026, 24 pages. Illustrated boards to identify risky situations, notably in two homes, and seek prevention solutions (external source). inrs.fr — ED 4463 (URL verified, consulted on 7 November 2026).
6️⃣ #️⃣ HASHTAGS
#practicesinhealth #HomeCare #WorkingConditions #WorkHardship #EmotionalLoad #InvoluntaryPartTime #HomeCareJobs #Drees
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