[rmnclmnt]

Yes and no, and it depends on your requirements:

- Social security: covered by the state through social taxes (URSSAF) like employees - Benefits: you're the boss, you can be wild :) - Renting / getting a mortgage: bankers are more and more inclined to examine your situation, especially if you can provide a good track record of recurrent / constant revenue stream

In any case, I agree completely with the original comment: going solo in France is one way to break the "glass ceiling" in terms of net revenue and career path is you feel entrepreneur.

[rozenmd]

Oh cool!

So you can just contract for international companies out of France, pay your taxes as normal, and you still get unemployment if you get fired unexpectedly?

[rmnclmnt]

If you are a solo contractor / business owner, indeed you cannot pretend for unemployment compensation ("chômage"). But if you care about accounting, after some time you can live off several months / years without any revenue.

One last thing: at least in France (don't other countries) you are obligated to contract for multiple clients (at least 2) per fiscal year to avoid fraudulent employment and the risk of losing a client the next day. And in this day and age, landing a new client in the IT/Software/Data/AI/whatever industry is relatively easy!

[Jacqued]

Unemployment is the one benefit you can't get as a contractor (in France, I don't know about OP's country), but it doesn't work that great for higher income professionals anyway.

When it comes to health insurance or retirement you're generally covered though.