Updated October 2026. Start with France Travail, the public employment service with 700,000+ live offers. Cadres use APEC, tech and startup candidates use Welcome to the Jungle, and LinkedIn carries the most English-language postings. No French job board offers a visa-sponsorship filter, so non-EU candidates screen manually against their permit threshold, such as €39,582 for the passeport talent. The SMIC is €1,867.02 gross a month since June 2026.
Key takeaways
- France Travail (ex-Pôle emploi) carries 700,000+ live offers; registration needs legal residence and a French address.
- APEC is the free reference for cadres; Welcome to the Jungle has the highest share of English postings among French boards (about 15-20%).
- No French job board filters for visa sponsorship: screen offers against your permit threshold yourself.
- An employer cannot require a photo, your age or your marital status on a CV (Code du travail L.1221-6, L.1132-1).
- The SMIC is €12.31 gross an hour since 1 June 2026; a branch grid can only raise that floor.
Which job sites are best in France?
The best platform depends on your profile and goal. France Travail has the most volume, with more than 700,000 live offers (April 2026), and runs benefits registration. APEC is the free specialist for cadres. Welcome to the Jungle profiles 4,500+ companies and suits startups, while LinkedIn, with 28 million members in France, is best for recruiter outreach. Indeed draws about 7.7 million visitors a month, and HelloWork leads on regional SME roles. Use two or three in parallel.
France Travail
France Travail is the public employment service, renamed from Pôle emploi in January 2024. It carries more than 700,000 live offers at any time, the largest volume in France, and handles unemployment benefit registration, guidance, and training. Its La Bonne Boîte tool reveals companies likely to hire without posting an ad.
Why we recommend it: The public employment service and the biggest source of listings in France, with 700,000+ live offers, benefits registration and jobseeker support.
Pros
- +Largest volume of listings in France
- +Handles unemployment benefits registration
- +Free advisers in 900+ local agencies
Cons
- −French-only portal; under 2% of postings in English
- −Registration needs legal residence and a French address
- Public employment service (ex-Pôle emploi, renamed Jan 2024)
- 700,000+ live offers (April 2026)
- La Bonne Boîte: companies hiring without an ad
APEC
APEC (Association pour l'emploi des cadres) is the free reference service for cadres, the French category covering executives, managers, and many graduates. It published 2,039,088 offers in 2025 including partner offers, keeps about 50,000 direct cadre offers live, and offers free one-to-one coaching plus a quarterly hiring barometer by sector.
Why we recommend it: The free reference service for cadres, executives, managers, and graduates, with 2M+ offers in 2025 and free coaching in 45 centres.
Pros
- +Free service focused on cadres and graduates
- +Free coaching: 650 consultants in 45 centres
- +Dedicated space for graduates and VIE
Cons
- −Cadre-only: little for non-executive searches
- −Offer counts inflated by partner aggregation
- 2,039,088 offers published in 2025, incl. partners
- About 50,000 direct cadre offers at any time
- Quarterly cadre hiring barometer by sector
Welcome to the Jungle
Welcome to the Jungle profiles more than 4,500 client companies with culture videos and interview-process details, and draws over 3 million visitors a month. About 15-20% of its postings are in English, the highest share of any French-native board, which makes it the first stop for tech, product and data roles.
Why we recommend it: Profiles of 4,500+ companies and the highest share of English postings among French boards, about 15-20%.
Pros
- +Detailed company profiles and culture pages
- +About 15-20% English postings, with an English site
- +Strong tech, startup, and scale-up roles
Cons
- −Employer-branded content is marketing, not neutral
- −Weak outside digital, tech and startups
- 4,500+ client companies profiled
- 3M+ visitors a month
- Interview-process transparency per listing
LinkedIn has 28 million members in France and is where international employers post natively in English, with a language filter. Recruiters approach candidates directly by InMail, so a complete profile brings roles that are never publicly posted. The free tier is enough for most searches; Premium costs about €30-60 a month.
Why we recommend it: The largest professional network, with 28M members in France and the most English-language postings.
Pros
- +28M members in France; recruiters source here
- +Highest share of English postings, language filter
- +Combines networking with applications
Cons
- −Ghost jobs and evergreen consulting postings
- −Weak for non-cadre and local trade jobs
- Job listings plus professional networking
- Recruiter InMail and company pages
- Premium optional, about €30-60 a month
Indeed
Indeed is the highest-traffic private job board in France, with about 7.7 million unique visitors a month (2025). It aggregates company career pages other boards miss, from entry level to senior roles, and about 5-10% of listings surface through English keyword searches. Its 2026 salary pages per job title help benchmark an offer.
Why we recommend it: The highest-traffic private job board in France, about 7.7M visitors a month, with the broadest coverage.
Pros
- +Broadest coverage across the market
- +English keyword search finds international employers
- +Salary pages per job title, dated 2026
Cons
- −Duplicate and stale listings from aggregation
- −Scam postings slip through: never pay to apply
- About 7.7M unique visitors a month (2025)
- About 5-10% findable with English keywords
- Alerts and quick apply
HelloWork
HelloWork, formerly RegionsJob, is the strongest board for regional SME jobs outside Île-de-France, with at least 500,000 new offers a month (one source says 800,000) and 3-4 million visitors. It is strong in industry, construction, health, retail and apprenticeships, and publishes per-job salary pages with 2026 figures.
Why we recommend it: The strongest board for regional SME jobs outside Île-de-France, with 500,000+ new offers a month.
Pros
- +Strong on regional SME and local roles
- +Dedicated alternance and apprenticeship stock
- +Per-job salary pages with 2026 figures
Cons
- −French-only, under 2% English postings
- −Thin on international groups and tech HQ roles
- 500,000+ new offers a month (sources up to 800,000)
- 3-4M visitors a month
- Alerts and candidate accounts
Ranking and platform profiles as of October 2026. Offer counts and traffic come from the October 2026 research catalogue and its cited sources; they change, so verify current details on each platform.
Which job site fits your situation?
The right job site in France depends less on the board than on your contract type, sector and permit route. The October 2026 research tested seven candidate situations against more than 25 boards. Two findings stand out. For non-EU graduates of a French master's, the salary threshold decides the permit, not the board: a €42,000 offer clears the €39,582 passeport talent line wherever you found it. For regulated jobs such as nursing, diploma recognition by the professional order comes before any application.
Sector boards beat generalists in their niche. Staffsanté lists 28,000+ health offers, Emploi CHR covers restaurants that Hosco misses, and EURAXESScarries English-language research posts whose host labs issue the convention d'accueil for the researcher permit. Freelancers face a different choice: Upwork works from month one with no French, while Malt needs a French business status first.
| Situation | Start here | Also use | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Non-EU master's graduate, CDI offer at €42,000 | LinkedIn, Welcome to the Jungle, APEC graduate space | APS (12 months), then passeport talent | €42,000 clears the €39,582 talent threshold |
| Senior data engineer abroad, €75,000 Paris offer | LinkedIn, Welcome to the Jungle | EU Blue Card | €75,000 clears the €59,373 Blue Card line |
| Seasonal hotel worker, 4-month ski season | Emploi CHR, France Travail seasonal listings | Hosco | HCR seasonal contracts run 1-9 months, housing often included |
| English-speaking nurse moving to Marseille | Staffsanté, after Ordre des Infirmiers recognition | EmploiSoignant | French at B2 is required for patient roles |
| Freelance developer, income needed from month one | Upwork plus micro-entreprise registration | Malt once French status is set | Upwork needs no French; Malt needs a French business status |
| Postdoc, 18-month CNRS contract | EURAXESS | EURAXESS centre for housing help | Convention d'accueil unlocks the researcher permit with no salary floor |
| 45-year-old executive moving into finance | Cadremploi plus APEC coaching | LinkedIn inbound | Experienced-cadre finance hiring concentrates on these two |
Which French job sites let you filter for visa sponsorship?
No French job board offers a visa-sponsorship filter. The October 2026 research checked every board in its catalogue, public and private, from France Travail to LinkedIn and Hosco, and found sponsorship screening is manual everywhere. Even boards with an international audience leave it out. Non-EU candidates therefore cannot filter their way to sponsoring employers; they have to qualify each offer themselves.
The workaround has three steps. First, search where English postings concentrate: LinkedIn with its language filter, Welcome to the Jungle at about 15-20% English, and Indeed with English keywords. Second, check the salary against your route before applying: €39,582 for the passeport talent salarié qualifié, €59,373 for the EU Blue Card. Third, favour routes where someone else carries the paperwork: the employer files the autorisation de travail on ANEF for the salarié route, EURAXESShost labs issue a convention d'accueil, and the OECD and UNESCO arrange their own staff visas. See our work visa guide for each route.
| Board | English postings | Visa-sponsor filter |
|---|---|---|
| France Travail | Under 2% | None; registration needs legal residence |
| Indeed | About 5-10% via English keywords | None |
| Highest of any France-wide board; language filter | None | |
| Welcome to the Jungle | About 15-20% | None |
| APEC | About 5% | None |
| Cadremploi | About 3% | None |
| HelloWork | Under 2% | None |
| Hosco (hospitality) | About 40% or more | None |
| EURAXESS (research) | High | No filter; host labs issue a convention d'accueil |
| OECD, UNESCO (Paris) | Mostly English | Not needed; the organisation arranges visas |
| EURES | High, all EU languages | Not needed for EU citizens; none for others |
How do you choose a job platform in France?
Choosing a job platform means matching it to your goal and profile. If you want the widest set of listings and access to public support, register with France Travail, which also pays unemployment benefits (ARE). If you are a cadre, executive, manager, or recent graduate, use APEC for its free coaching. For startups, tech, and company culture, Welcome to the Jungle gives the most context. For networking and being approached by recruiters, LinkedIn is essential, while Indeed and HelloWork broaden your coverage, the latter outside Île-de-France.
- Step 1: Define your goal: benefits and volume, cadre roles, startups, or networking.
- Step 2: Register with France Travail if you want listings, benefits and support.
- Step 3: Add a specialist platform (APEC for cadres, Welcome to the Jungle for startups, a sector board for health or hotels).
- Step 4: Keep a strong LinkedIn profile for recruiter outreach.
- Step 5: Use Indeed and HelloWork to widen coverage and catch local roles.
Use two or three platforms in parallel
What are French CV and application norms?
A French CV is one page up to about 10 years of experience and two pages at most for senior profiles, paired with a lettre de motivation. Custom and law diverge on personal details. A photo still appears on most French CVs, yet an employer cannot require one: Code du travail article L.1221-6 limits requests to information directly linked to the job, and L.1132-1 bans discrimination on appearance and age. Your date of birth and marital status fall under the same rule.
State language levels explicitly (B2 English, for example) and, if you are foreign, your work authorisation, since the employer must verify your right to work. A driving licence line is common outside Paris, but an employer can demand it only if the job involves driving. Recruiters sometimes ask for your previous payslip; the request is legal, and you may refuse it. French is often required unless the employer is international or the role is explicitly English-speaking.
| Element | Custom in 2026 | Legal position |
|---|---|---|
| Photo | On most CVs; often dropped in tech and international firms | Cannot be required |
| Date of birth | Traditional; younger candidates drop it | Cannot be demanded (age discrimination) |
| Marital status, children | Not included | Prohibited to demand |
| Length | 1 page up to about 10 years; 2 pages max for seniors | No rule |
| References | Rarely listed | Past employers contacted only with your knowledge |
| Driving licence | Common outside Paris | Demandable only if the job needs driving |
| Previous payslip | Sometimes requested | Legal to ask; you may refuse |
| Work authorisation | Stated by foreign candidates | Employer must verify your right to work |
Adapt, do not just translate
What is the minimum wage in France in 2026?
The SMIC is €12.31 gross an hour since 1 June 2026, or €1,867.02 gross a month for a 35-hour week. An inflation indexation lifted it from €12.02 an hour (€1,823.03 a month) set in January 2026, according to the INSEE SMIC series. For comparison, INSEE puts the median net salary at €2,190 a month and the private-sector mean at €2,733 (2026 publication of 2024 data).
Each industry branch also negotiates a convention collective with a grid of minimum rates by level and step: HCR (hotels and restaurants, IDCC 1979), Syntec, pharmacie d'officine and métallurgie among them. Your floor is the higherof the SMIC and your grid cell. When the SMIC overtakes a cell, it wins automatically: the HCR grid's level I step 1 at €12.00 and its waiter rate at €12.28 now sit below €12.31, so the SMIC applies. An extension order makes a branch grid binding on every employer in the sector, and your classification must appear on your payslip.
What do ten common professions pay in France?
Salaries in France vary most by sector and seniority, and the table gives sourced bands for ten common jobs as of 2026. A software developer starts around €37,230 a year and reaches about €58,254 when senior, per HelloWork (October 2026). A pharmacist in a pharmacy starts at €3,761.53 gross a month on the branch grid, while a public-hospital nurse starts at €1,944.50 gross before Ségur supplements and bonuses.
Published bands are thin for many roles, which is why salary threads on r/vosfinances are popular: candidates anchor offers on peer reports when Glassdoor and Indeed show nothing. Annual figures are gross unless marked net. For non-EU hires, compare any band with the permit thresholds in the next section, because €39,582 and €59,373 often decide the negotiation.
| Profession | Entry | Mid-career | Senior |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software developer | €37,230 (HelloWork junior figure €39,420) | €50,369 | €58,254; Île-de-France median €52,000 |
| Data or ML engineer | €45,000-55,000 (2-3 years) | €55,000-70,000 (3-5 years) | About €100,000 (senior or lead) |
| Engineer, all sectors | €39,284 young graduate, before bonuses | Median €67,000 | €90,000+ (top decile) |
| Nurse, public hospital | €1,944.50 a month gross (about €1,614 net) plus Ségur and bonuses | About €2,300-2,500 a month gross with bonuses | DREES average about €2,800 a month net |
| Secondary teacher (certifié) | About €1,771-1,900 a month net as trainee | €2,400-2,600 net (10-15 years) | €3,300-3,500 net; agrégé up to about €4,200 |
| Accountant | €22,000-26,000 (assistant) | €32,000-40,000 | Expert-comptable €70,000-95,000 |
| Sales representative | Package €34,000-47,000 (0-2 years) | Median fixed €39,000, package €52,000 | €65,000-110,000 key accounts |
| Waiter (HCR) | Grid €12.28 an hour, lifted to the SMIC: €1,867.02 a month (35 h) | Chef de rang €13.32 an hour, about €2,274 (39 h) | Maître d'hôtel €14.40 an hour, about €2,459 (39 h) |
| Pharmacist (pharmacy) | €3,761.53 a month gross (coefficient 470) | €4,001.95-4,322.65 (coefficient 500-540) | €6,403.78 (coefficient 800); hospital entry €4,565.50 |
| Care assistant, public | €1,836.20 a month gross (about €1,524 net) plus Ségur €183 net | About €1,700-1,900 net with bonuses | About €2,000 net at end of career |
What people in France report
- ○ Recruiter asks for payslips: A candidate who quoted a target salary instead of current pay was then asked for past payslips. Commenters agreed the request is legal but can be refused, and debated whether bluffing was worth the risk. (r/vosfinances, October 2021)
- ○ No public salary data: A cybersecurity GRC hire with 3 years' experience and €45,000 fixed asked if €54,000-64,000 was defensible at a CAC 40 group. Glassdoor and Indeed had no data, so commenters anchored the role around €55,000-60,000 in Île-de-France. (r/vosfinances, October 2024)
- ○ Permit threshold sets the offer: A foreign hire offered €40,000 at ENGIE realised the passeport talent threshold of the time, €43,243, meant negotiating the offer up. The threshold has since been reset to €39,582 (August 2025), so the same offer would now clear it. (r/vosfinances, November 2024)
Paraphrased from public posts, each dated and linked. A small sample, not a representative survey.
Do you have the right to work in France?
Citizens of the EU, the EEA, and Switzerland can work in France without a permit. Third-country nationals need a work-authorising permit, and most routes tied to a job offer carry a salary threshold. Décret 2025-539 decoupled the talent thresholds from the SMIC and reset them: €39,582 a year for the passeport talent salarié qualifié and €59,373 for the EU Blue Card (arrêté of 21 August 2025, unchanged in 2026). Older figures of €43,243 and €53,836 still circulate online.
A student changing status to salarié needs 1.5 times the SMIC, now €2,800.53 gross a month; Campus France still quotes €2,702.70 on the earlier SMIC. During studies, work is capped at 964 hours a year. File a status change on ANEF 4 to 2 months before your current title expires. See our work visa guide and EU citizens guide for the full procedures.
| Route | Main condition | Salary threshold | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Salarié (from student status) | Employer files the autorisation de travail on ANEF | €2,800.53 a month (1.5 × SMIC) | 1-year card, renewable |
| Passeport talent, salarié qualifié | Master's obtained in France, contract of 3+ months linked to it | €39,582 a year | Up to 4 years; spouse can work |
| EU Blue Card | 3-year degree or 5 years' experience, contract of 6+ months | €59,373 a year | Up to 4 years; EU mobility |
| APS / RECE (job search) | Master's or higher from a French institution | None during the APS | 12 months, not renewable |
| Talent, researcher | Convention d'accueil from an accredited lab | No salary floor | Multi-year |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is France Travail and how is it different from Pôle emploi?
France Travail is the public employment service, renamed from Pôle emploi in January 2024. It is the same institution with a new name. It carries more than 700,000 live offers (April 2026), handles unemployment benefit registration, and offers guidance in 900+ local agencies. Registration requires legal residence and a French address.
Do any French job sites filter for visa sponsorship?
No. None of the French job boards in our October 2026 research, public or private, offers a visa-sponsorship filter, so screening is manual everywhere. The workaround: search where English postings concentrate (LinkedIn, Welcome to the Jungle at about 15-20%), check the salary against your permit threshold, and target routes where the employer or host handles authorisation, such as EURAXESS research posts.
Which job site is best for executives and managers in France?
APEC is the reference for cadres, the French category covering executives, managers, and many graduates. It published 2,039,088 offers in 2025 including partner offers, and offers free coaching with 650 consultants in 45 centres. Cadremploi adds 20,000+ cadre offers, 94% of them CDI, and is strongest in finance, consulting and legal roles.
Can a French employer require a photo on my CV?
No. A photo is still customary on most French CVs, but an employer cannot require one: Code du travail article L.1221-6 limits requests to information directly linked to the job, and L.1132-1 bans discrimination on appearance and age. The same rules stop an employer demanding your date of birth or marital status.
What is the minimum wage in France in 2026?
The SMIC is €12.31 gross an hour since 1 June 2026, or €1,867.02 gross a month for a 35-hour week. It was €12.02 an hour (€1,823.03 a month) from January 2026. Branch agreements (conventions collectives) can set higher floors; the higher of the SMIC and your grid always applies.
Can I work in France as a foreigner?
EU, EEA, and Swiss citizens can work in France without a permit. Third-country nationals need a work-authorising permit, and most routes carry a salary threshold: €39,582 a year for the passeport talent salarié qualifié and €59,373 for the EU Blue Card (arrêté of 21 August 2025), or 1.5 times the SMIC (€2,800.53 a month) when a student changes status to salarié.
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