Work that cannot be offshored
Care happens in the home or the facility. It can neither be automated nor moved abroad, and it is rooted in the neighbourhood where the person lives.
Data and sources
Ageing, with the figures in hand
We argue for a professional care sector. An argument is only worth its data: here it is, with scope, year and source — including where it unsettles our own assumptions.
Two scopes, never conflated.
The Cameroonian data describe the country’s demography and social protection (United Nations, International Labour Organization). The French data describe a mature personal care sector; they serve as a benchmark for anticipating what a structured sector produces in jobs and organisation. They in no way describe the Cameroonian situation and are flagged as such throughout.
Part 1 · Cameroon
A demographic transition already under way
Cameroon remains a young country. But its older population is growing faster than any other age group, and the arrangements that should support it are barely developed.
What these three charts say together
The population aged 60 and over is multiplied by 2.7 between 2025 and 2050. Over the same period, fewer than one person in five above retirement age receives a pension — and among women, fewer than one in ten.
Yet it is women who live longest, and who therefore most often pass through the years of dependency. Longer lives combined with near-absent coverage point precisely to the population professional care must reach.
Without an income of their own, access to services depends entirely on family solidarity — which makes a solvency mechanism indispensable. See our answer.
Part 2 · International comparison
What the sector becomes once it is organised
The French data below do not describe Cameroon. They describe what a society produces when it decides to professionalise personal care: a major employment sector, with its strengths and its flaws.
One million employees in personal care services
France, 2019. For scale: roughly 4 % of the country’s salaried employment.
| Type of employee | Headcount | Women | Aged 55+ | Median gross hourly pay | Hours/year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Employed directly by households | 748,000 | 87 % | 39 % | €14.50 | 560 |
| Employed by service organisations | 370,000 | 94 % | 24 % | €11.20 | 890 |
| All personal care services | 1,049,000 | 89 % | 34 % | €14.20 | 740 |
Source: Insee, Insee Première no. 1981 — BTS 2019, PEA 2019 file; DGE, Nova 2019. An employee may fall into both categories, hence a total lower than the sum.
Recruitment pressure is structural
In 2024, the services and health-and-social-work sectors in France reported 544,820 planned recruitments, of which 57.5 % were expected to be hard to fill. The need is not lacking: trained professionals are.
| Region | Vacancies | Hard to fill |
|---|---|---|
| Île-de-France | 82,970 | 53.5 % |
| Nouvelle-Aquitaine | 61,610 | 66.8 % |
| Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | 58,350 | 62.6 % |
| Occitanie | 54,340 | 48.8 % |
| Whole country | 544,820 | 57.5 % |
Source: France Travail, Besoins en main-d’œuvre survey 2024, “Other service activities” and “Human health and social work” sectors.
Part 3 · Simulator
How many jobs, for what level of coverage?
Move the sliders to build your own scenario. The calculation is deliberately simple and entirely transparent: it is not a forecast, but it gives the order of magnitude of the employment at stake.
1.34 million in 2025 · 3.68 million projected for 2050 (UN, WPP 2024).
In France, 43 % of households aged 80 and over use a personal care service (Insee, Filosofi 2018).
Depends on weekly hours of intervention and the level of dependency supported.
Formula applied: jobs = (older people × share supported) ÷ people supported per worker. No hidden assumptions, no econometric projection. It is a framing tool, not a forecast.
46,000
social care worker jobs matching this scenario
368,000
older people supported
4,600
students to train each year for ten years
Work with a multiplier effect
Every care worker frees time for family carers — most often working women — and allows them to stay in employment.
Work that demands qualification
Without training or a negotiated contract, it becomes precarious and exhausting. Qualification is not an extra: it is what makes the opportunity real.
Part 4 · Our trajectory
What Les 3A is aiming for, and by when
Method
How we handle the data
From public statistical sources, cited under each chart with their year and geographical scope:
- United Nations, Population Division — World Population Prospects 2024;
- International Labour Organization, Social Security Inquiry Database, SDG indicator 1.3.1;
- Insee — Insee Première no. 1981, Insee Focus no. 331, Insee Analyses Hauts-de-France nos. 115 and 128;
- Drees — Vie quotidienne et santé surveys, 2014 and 2021;
- France Travail — Besoins en main-d’œuvre survey, 2024;
- 3A strategic modernisation plan 2026–2031 and the minutes of 22 August 2024, for data specific to the association.
Because there is not yet, in Cameroon, detailed public statistics on a personal care sector that remains largely informal. The French data document a mature sector: volume of employment, structure of occupations, inequalities of access, recruitment pressure. They serve as a yardstick, not a description. Every chart concerned carries its scope, and we never derive from them a figure presented as Cameroonian.
They are significant and we own them. The calculation ignores the real solvency of demand, the split between towns and countryside, the varying intensity of care by level of dependency, and the pace at which a training system can actually produce qualified professionals. It does not say what will happen: it says how many jobs would correspond to a given level of coverage. It is a tool for discussion.
No, and they are flagged as such. The five-year figures for revenue, headcount and beneficiaries are objectives from the strategic plan adopted by the association, with growth assumptions set out in that document. They describe an intention, not an observed reality. Results actually achieved will be published as they come in.
Spotted an error, or a more recent source? We are glad to correct it. Tell us through the contact page, naming the chart concerned.