A 34-year overview of night work by occupation and industry in France based on census data and a sex-specific job-exposure matrix

BACKGROUND: Night work has been increasing in the last decades due to new working arrangements for good and services production. Numerous studies have shown that night shift work causes disruptions in circadian rhythms that may affect health. In 2019, night shift work was classified as probably carcinogenic to humans by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and may contribute to other health disorders. In this context, we assessed the number and proportion of workers exposed to night work today and investigated time trends by occupation and industry in France since 1982 in terms of prevention. METHODS: Using the data on work time schedules collected in the French Labour Force Surveys, sex- and period-specific job-exposure matrices (JEMs) to night work (working between midnight and 5 AM) were developed. After linkage of the JEMs with data of the national censuses of 1982, 1990, 1999, 2007 and 2015, the numbers and proportions of workers usually or occasionally exposed to night work were estimated. RESULTS: The number of night workers (usual and occasional) increased from 3.67 million in 1982 to 4.37 million in 2015 (15.8% vs 16.4%). Night work was more common in men than in women (e.g. 22.4% vs 10.0% in 2015), and usual night work largely increased after 2000 (4.4% in 1999, 7.2% in 2007). In 2015, 1.29 million men worked usually at night, including 882,000 workers in the service sector (63%) and 360,000 in the manufacturing and extracting industries (28%). For the same period, 581,000 women were usual night workers, most of them being employed in the service sector (90%). Among women, a 97% increase of usual night work was observed between 1982 and 2015. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that night work involves a growing number of workers in France, particularly in women in the service sector. These results raise concern about the public health impact of night work and particularly about the numbers of outcomes attributable to this exposure such as breast or prostate cancers. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12889-022-13830-5.