JCDecaux's activities supported 183,460 full-time equivalent jobs around the world in 2025, according to a study the outdoor advertising company commissioned from French consultancy Utopies and published on October 8, 2026. The figure is up 53% from 119,920 in the previous edition of the study, which used 2022 data. Only 11,894 of those jobs are JCDecaux's own employees. The other 171,566 are estimates produced by an economic model of how the company's purchases, salaries and taxes ripple through supplier chains, household spending and public budgets in 79 countries.

In Short

JCDecaux, the company behind many bus shelter and airport ads, paid a consultancy to estimate how many jobs and how much economic output its spending supports around the world. The answer was 183,460 jobs and 7.3 billion euros, but fewer than one in fifteen of those jobs are people JCDecaux actually employs, and the rest are computer-modelled estimates. Cities that hand out outdoor advertising contracts, and the advertisers who buy that space, now have a bigger headline number in front of them, along with a long list of things the study says it did not measure.

What the study measured

The study is the third socioeconomic footprint JCDecaux has commissioned from Utopies since 2019, according to JCDecaux. A timeline in the French-language study document shows a first footprint of JCDecaux in France in 2019, a global and French footprint in 2023, and the current global and French edition in 2026. The two companies have also worked together on a joint position paper titled "Brand Urbanism", a review of JCDecaux's CSR strategy and reporting, an "Empreinte 360" calculator and the drafting of JCDecaux's non-financial performance statement, according to the same timeline.

The current edition is based on the 2025 financial year and, according to JCDecaux, covers every geography where the group operates. The study document puts that at 79 countries, with results calculated country by country and a separate focus on France. JCDecaux's own press release, issued from Paris on October 8, 2026, describes the work as "an independent assessment". It was commissioned and paid for by the company being assessed, and every input figure came from JCDecaux. The study's own communication guidance says it quantifies "the order of magnitude of the gross economic weight of the company's activity" on the basis of "monetary amounts analysed and provided by the company" (translation by PPC Land).

Three outputs sit at the top of the report. Jobs supported worldwide: 183,460. Contribution to GDP worldwide: 7,294 million euros. Jobs supported per direct job: 15.4, which JCDecaux expresses as 14.4 additional jobs for each person it employs.

JCDecaux's press release describes the 7.3 billion euro figure as "wealth creation". The study itself labels it a contribution to GDP, which in this model means value added: JCDecaux's own value added plus the value added generated at its suppliers, at the businesses where employees spend their wages, and in the public sector funded by taxes. For comparison, JCDecaux reported 2025 revenue of 3,967.1 million euros, according to the key figures attached to the release.

The GDP multiplier is 3.7. According to the study, for each euro of value added JCDecaux creates, 2.7 additional euros of value added are generated elsewhere in the world economy. Working backwards, that puts JCDecaux's direct value added at roughly 1.97 billion euros, consistent with the study's statement that direct value added accounts for 27% of the total GDP contribution.

How the 183,460 breaks down

The study splits the total into four categories, all expressed in full-time equivalents and rounded to the nearest ten:

  • Direct jobs: 11,894, or 7% of the total. These are JCDecaux employees.
  • Indirect jobs: 72,336, or 39%. These are jobs at suppliers, and at the suppliers of those suppliers, linked to what JCDecaux buys.
  • Induced jobs from household spending: 56,516, or 31%. These come from wages paid by JCDecaux and its supply chain being spent in shops, restaurants and services.
  • Induced jobs from public spending: 42,711, or 23%. These come from taxes paid by JCDecaux, its suppliers, the businesses households buy from and households themselves, which public administrations then spend.

Induced effects, in other words, account for 54% of the total. That is more than the direct and indirect supplier jobs combined. The study says the figure represents 0.009% of global employment, which it puts at 2.14 billion jobs on International Labour Organization estimates.

How LOCAL FOOTPRINT works

The engine behind the numbers is LOCAL FOOTPRINT, a modelling tool developed by Utopies. According to the study, it is a statistical model of the Regional Input-Output Multipliers (RIMS) type. It takes the money a company injects into the economy, in four forms - purchases, value added, salaries and taxes - and traces where that money goes next.

The study describes the mechanism in plain terms. Based on the spending figures supplied, the model "follows the trail of every euro we spend with an economic actor", and estimates, for example, how much of 100 euros spent with an IT contractor goes on salaries and how much on that contractor's own purchases (translation by PPC Land; the study's frequently asked questions are written in JCDecaux's voice). It then estimates how many jobs are needed to fulfil those orders, the resulting household consumption and the public spending financed by the taxes. The calculation runs through the whole chain: first-tier suppliers, their suppliers, and so on.

Several technical choices shape the result:

The model covers 220 countries and 380 economic sectors, according to the study. Some pages of the methodology refer to 378 sectors instead. The base of the global model is the input-output table of the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, described in the study as the most detailed in the world, combined with regional economics work from the University of Bristol and national statistics from INSEE, France's statistics office.

For the global model, the production functions that describe how each sector buys from every other sector are those of the United States. For France, Belgium, Brazil, Switzerland, Portugal and the other countries covered by Eurostat's FIGARO data, representing 88% of world GDP according to the study, those generic coefficients are adjusted for local economic conditions. Elsewhere, the same production function is applied to a given sector in different countries. The study justifies this choice by comparing its results with those of the Eora model.

Investment is treated as part of intermediate consumption. The study is candid about the effect: including gross fixed capital formation in the matrix of intermediate exchanges "implies an increase in absolute results compared with a matrix without investments", because more spending is fed into the model at every tier (translation by PPC Land). For some sectors, the study notes, this produces coefficients converting production into purchases above 100%.

The model is linear and static. According to the study, it assumes no economies of scale, fixed production functions and no scarcity of resources, so "a shock of 10 million euros in a productive sector is equal to 10 shocks of 1 million euros in the same sector" (translation by PPC Land). The impact is calculated for year N using economic data from year N-1, a convention the study acknowledges "does not take into account the chronology of actual spending".

Employment is counted as full-time equivalents at December 31 of the year studied, and includes salaried and self-employed jobs in the private, voluntary and public sectors, including domestic employment.

The audit

JCDecaux says the methodology was audited by EY. The study describes what that audit involved: Utopies sent EY three methodological notes and an internal mapping table, the two held two question-and-answer workshops, and Utopies answered a list of written questions from EY. Neither document includes an EY opinion or says whether EY reviewed the input data or the results, rather than the method.

Where the jobs and the GDP land

The geographic split shows how differently a model counts jobs and value added.

By jobs, the top ten countries are China with 19,390, France with 17,219, India with 13,931, the United States with 11,187, Brazil with 7,154, the United Kingdom with 7,130, Germany with 4,620, Australia with 3,549, Spain with 3,172 and Italy with 2,492. Europe accounts for 28% of the jobs.

By GDP contribution, the order changes. France leads with 1,218 million euros, or 17% of the total, followed by the United Kingdom at 703 million euros, Greater China at 675 million euros (478 million in mainland China and 197 million in Hong Kong), the United States at 674 million euros, Germany at 495 million euros, Australia at 408 million euros, Spain at 241 million euros, Italy at 205 million euros and Brazil at 189 million euros. India, third by jobs, does not appear in the top ten by GDP. Europe accounts for 54% of the GDP contribution.

The gap is a product of labour productivity. A euro of spending in China, India or Brazil buys more hours of work than in France or Germany, so the model counts more jobs per euro there. Each Chinese job in the study corresponds to roughly 25,000 euros of value added; each French job, to around 71,000 euros. A reader comparing job counts across countries is, in part, comparing wage levels.

That also bears on the comparison with the previous study. PPC Land's coverage of the 2022 edition reported that 41% of the jobs JCDecaux supported were in Europe. In the 2025 edition that share is 28%. Neither of the documents published on October 8 explains the shift.

Public administration is the largest sector

The sector breakdown carries a detail that the press release does not mention. The single largest sector for supported jobs is public administration, with 26,801 jobs, or 15% of the total. These are mostly induced jobs, financed by the taxes paid along the chain. Business support services come next with 25,548 jobs (14%), a category that includes advertising and therefore most of JCDecaux's own staff. Specialised, scientific and technical services follow with 16,468 (9%), then transport and logistics with 15,512 (8%), health, education and social work with 13,087, and trade with 12,781.

For GDP, business support services lead with 2,358 million euros, or 32%, mainly because of JCDecaux's own value added. Public administration follows with 863 million euros (12%), then transport and logistics with 641 million euros (9%) and specialised, scientific and technical services with 473 million euros (6%).

According to the study, jobs in sectors that sell to JCDecaux - transport and logistics, technical services, business support - are mainly indirect, while jobs in public administration, trade, agriculture, hospitality and real estate are mainly induced.

The France figures

France gets a dedicated section. According to the study, JCDecaux's French entities supported 16,150 jobs in France in 2025, up 10% from 14,670 in 2022. The split is more even than at group level: 3,244 direct jobs (20%), 3,169 indirect jobs (20%), 4,833 induced by household spending (30%) and 4,902 induced by public spending (30%). The employment multiplier is 5.0, meaning four additional jobs for each direct job, and the GDP multiplier is 2.8, with 1.8 euros of additional value added for each euro created by JCDecaux. The total French GDP contribution of the French entities is 1,197 million euros. The study puts the job figure at 0.05% of French employment, estimated by INSEE at 29.5 million full-time equivalents in its 2025 national accounts.

The sector mix in France differs from the global one. Business support services account for 4,414 jobs, or 27%, followed by health, education and social work with 4,115 (25%), specialised, scientific and technical services with 1,109 and trade with 883.

The study adds a second, larger France figure. JCDecaux as a whole, including its non-French entities, supports 17,220 jobs in France, according to the study, because purchases made by other group entities generate 1,070 additional jobs there. The top-ten country map uses this group-wide perimeter, at 17,219 jobs and 1,218 million euros of GDP. JCDecaux's press release uses the narrower 16,150 job figure, and gives French GDP as 1.2 billion euros, a rounding that fits either perimeter.

Three numbers only in the press release

JCDecaux's press release lists three further France figures: 84% of purchases made from companies or subsidiaries based in France, 50% of purchases in France made from SMEs, and 66% of revenue "redistributed directly or indirectly to citizens". None of the three appears in the 28-page study document supplied with the release, which is an extract. Its page numbers run to at least 68, and its table of contents lists a section on JCDecaux's influence in the Toulouse metropolitan area and a "next steps" section that are not included. The release does not define what "redistributed directly or indirectly to citizens" covers. In 2024, by comparison, PPC Land's coverage of the previous study reported JCDecaux's claim that nearly half of the resources it generates are reinvested in public spaces and transport infrastructure, a different metric.

From 119,920 to 183,460

JCDecaux presents the 53% increase in supported jobs over three years as evidence of the strength of its model. Jean-Charles Decaux, Chairman of the Executive Board and Co-CEO of JCDecaux, said in the release: "These results reaffirm JCDecaux's position as a sustainable partner to cities across the world, supporting their economic attractiveness while being committed to the public interest. This performance confirms our model's ability to create value for our public partners, advertiser and agency clients, our suppliers and citizens wherever we operate."

The documents give the 2022 baseline but not its breakdown. PPC Land's April 2024 coverage of the earlier study reported a global multiplier of 9.7 additional jobs per direct job, and 3.6 in France. On those figures, the previous edition implied around 11,200 direct jobs worldwide. The 2025 edition counts 11,894 direct jobs, an increase of about 6% by this calculation, while the multiplier rose from 9.7 to 14.4. Most of the 53% therefore comes from modelled indirect and induced jobs rather than from JCDecaux's own headcount. That is an inference from the published figures; neither document attributes the increase to particular causes, such as changes in where JCDecaux buys, revisions to the model or its underlying data, or the geographic shift away from Europe.

The company's revenue moved far less over the same period. JCDecaux's 2025 annual results showed revenue of 3,967.1 million euros, up 0.8% on a reported basis and 1.8% organically on 2024, alongside record free cash flow of 342.9 million euros.

What the study does not count

The study document is explicit about its limits, and they matter for anyone using the numbers.

It measures gross, not net, impact. According to the study, "the net impact of these activities on the territory, taking into account possible cannibalisation of other economic actors, has not been quantified" (translation by PPC Land). Productivity and competitiveness gains for local economies were not measured either. For the France section, the study did not account for spillovers abroad or "boomerang" effects that flow back into France.

It does not count environmental effects. The study says it quantifies neither the socioeconomic consequences of the activity on climate change, air pollution, ecosystems or biodiversity, nor costs avoided for local communities.

It says supported jobs are not created jobs. The study's frequently asked questions address the point directly: "Created jobs and supported jobs should not be confused. We create our direct jobs, but we only support the jobs of our suppliers through our orders" (translation by PPC Land). On the counterfactual, it adds: "if we no longer existed, the economy would probably be destabilised, but other actors would no doubt emerge, and it is likely that our suppliers would work for other clients" (translation by PPC Land).

It carries a material error margin. According to the study, LOCAL FOOTPRINT "is not the reality of the local economic circuit but a 'plausible' representation". It estimates an average margin of error of between 10% and 20%, with maximum uncertainty of 25% for small or poorly tracked exchanges, such as some intra-group flows and new investments, and minimum uncertainty of 5% for dense, stable exchanges. Applied to the headline, a 10% to 20% margin on 183,460 jobs spans roughly 18,000 to 37,000 jobs either way.

Inconsistencies in the documents

Several figures differ between the two documents, or within the study itself:

  • Country count: the study covers 79 countries, while the key figures in JCDecaux's press release describe a daily audience of 850 million people in 78 countries.
  • Sector count: the study gives 380 sectors in several places and 378 in others.
  • GDP total: 7,294 million euros on the main results page, 7,293 million euros on the country map.
  • France GDP: 1,197 million euros for French entities and 1,218 million euros for the whole group in France; the release gives 1.2 billion euros without saying which.
  • France jobs: 17,220 in the France section text, 17,219 on the country map, and 16,150 in the release.
  • France multiplier labels: the France results page describes both the 5.0 job multiplier and the 2.8 GDP multiplier as applying "in the world", while the numbers and the supporting text refer to France.
  • Study dates: the study document is dated July 2026; the release was published on October 8, 2026, and the release says the full study is available in French only.

None of these changes the order of magnitude, which is what the study says it is designed to estimate. They are worth noting because the release presents rounded figures without stating which perimeter they belong to.

Why outdoor advertising companies publish these numbers

JCDecaux's business depends on public contracts. Its street furniture model, which the release describes as financing bus shelters, Morris columns, newsstands, information panels, self-cleaning toilets and self-service bikes through advertising, is awarded by cities through competitive tenders. In April 2025, for example, JCDecaux won a 9-year information panel contract in Rennes covering 300 refurbished city information panels. Transport concessions with airports and metro operators follow similar processes. A study framing the company as "a sustainable partner to cities", in Jean-Charles Decaux's words, speaks to the officials who score those tenders.

The study's sector data underlines that dependence on public money flowing in both directions. Public administration is the largest single sector for supported jobs in the model, because taxes paid along JCDecaux's chain fund public spending. The study itself describes the company as sitting "in a logic of interdependence", dependent on other sectors in the same way they depend on it (translation by PPC Land).

The figures arrive as JCDecaux's advertising business shifts towards screens. In the first half of 2026, JCDecaux grew revenue 5.7% organically to 1,953.9 million euros, with digital out-of-home at 42.8% of group revenue and programmatic sales of 102.8 million euros making up 12.3% of digital. Programmatic access runs through VIOOH, JCDecaux's supply-side platform, which in July 2026 extended programmatic buying to every Latin American country where JCDecaux operates, covering more than 4,600 screens. In the first quarter of 2026, programmatic reached 10.5% of JCDecaux's digital revenue, while conflict in the Middle East weighed on a region that accounted for about 5% of 2025 revenue.

For media buyers, the study offers nothing about audiences, delivery or effectiveness. Its relevance is indirect: a footprint study of this kind becomes part of the sustainability and public-interest case outdoor operators make to cities, and increasingly to advertisers with their own supply chain reporting obligations. The release's key figures list JCDecaux's SBTi-approved carbon trajectory, a CDP A-List rating, an MSCI AAA rating, a Sustainalytics score of 11.1 and EcoVadis Gold status. The footprint study itself, by its own terms, does not measure environmental impact at all.

Other industry-funded impact figures

Industry-commissioned economic impact studies have a recognisable pattern, and PPC Land has examined several. In August 2025, a study by S&P Global Market Intelligence commissioned by The Advertising Coalition claimed that advertising supports 29 million US jobs, using input-output methods to trace ripple effects, and contained internal inconsistencies in its own percentages. In May 2026, PPC Land's analysis of Google's 2025 U.S. economic impact report found a 947 billion dollar headline resting on multipliers drawn from 2009 research and internal Google validation, with no clear answer on whether the figure was gross or net.

The JCDecaux study differs from Google's report in one respect: it documents its own limitations at length, including the gross-not-net caveat, the error margin and the effect of including investments. The press release that accompanies it does not repeat any of them.

The broader market context is mixed. US out-of-home spending is forecast at 4.0 billion dollars in 2026, up 4.1%, according to Guideline data covered by PPC Land in March 2026, with digital screens growing faster but decelerating. Measurement remains a live issue: the Media Rating Council opened a public comment period on phase 2 of its out-of-home audience measurement standards in July 2025. Economic footprint figures, however large, sit outside that measurement debate. They describe what JCDecaux spends, not what advertisers get.

Timeline

Summary

Who: JCDecaux SE, the Paris-listed outdoor advertising company, which commissioned French consultancy Utopies to model its socioeconomic footprint, with EY auditing the methodology. Jean-Charles Decaux, Chairman of the Executive Board and Co-CEO, commented on the results.

What: A study estimating that JCDecaux's activities supported 183,460 full-time equivalent jobs and 7,294 million euros of GDP contribution worldwide in 2025, of which 11,894 jobs are direct employees. In France, JCDecaux's French entities supported 16,150 jobs and 1,197 million euros of GDP. The figures are modelled, gross and self-reported, with a stated average margin of error of 10% to 20%.

When: JCDecaux published the study on October 8, 2026. The study document is dated July 2026 and uses 2025 financial year data; the previous edition used 2022 data.

Where: The study covers 79 countries, with a dedicated focus on France. China, France and India account for the most supported jobs; France, the United Kingdom and Greater China account for the most GDP contribution.

Why: JCDecaux's street furniture and transport advertising depends on contracts awarded by cities and transport authorities, and the company presents the study as evidence of its value to "public partners, advertiser and agency clients, our suppliers and citizens". The study itself says it does not measure net impact, displacement of other businesses, or environmental effects.