On Thursday, April 2, the Apec (Association for Executive Employment) unveiled a study conducted in 2025 on the executive employment market in the region. The first observation is that, given its demographic and economic weight, Bourgogne-Franche-Comté only accounted for 2% of executives identified by Insee in France last year. This is far from the powerhouse that Île-de-France is, where 45% of working executives in the country are located.
Out of the approximately 81,430 executives identified in our region, 22,210 were in Côte-d’Or, 17,760 in Doubs, and 14,580 in Saône-et-Loire. However, there were only 4,000 in Haute-Saône and 3,960 in Nièvre. On a regional scale, their average age was 44 years and two-thirds of them were men (65%, compared to 35% women). Another finding was that over half of them worked in a very small business or a small and medium-sized enterprise: 54% in Côte-d’Or, 59% in Saône-et-Loire, and even 72% in Jura. Lastly – a regional peculiarity – nearly a third of them belonged to the industrial sector.
A sharp decrease in net job creation: In terms of recruitment, Apec identified 5,810 executive hires in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in 2025. This number is slightly lower compared to 2024 (-1%) and far from the record of 6,220 hires in 2023. The data is not broken down by department, but it is noted that 61% of these positions were located in the Burgundy part of the region. Conversely, the number of net job creations significantly decreased in one year, dropping from 1,740 creations in 2024 to 1,230 in 2025. The commerce and marketing sector was the most dynamic, concentrating 23% of these new positions.
Struggles in the industry sector: “The executive employment market slightly contracted in 2025 in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. However, this decline is less intense than the one observed nationally (-3%),” commented Hervé Reynier, the regional delegate of Apec. According to him, “this easing of tension is particularly linked to the industry sector and more specifically to mechanics and metallurgy.” He specified that “regional companies foresee a similar number of recruitments for 2026, with 5,810 executive hires.” But he also mentioned that “this forecast should be considered cautiously, given the current geopolitical uncertainties and fluctuations.”
