Amongst the many driving forces behind recent protests in France is the persistence of so-called “precarious employment” which, though fairly small, is large enough to lead to social discord once sufficiently loud and widespread accusations are made on the social media about privilege and inequality. According to the latest available EU Labour Force Survey, the proportion of the French labour force with employment contracts of less than 3 months duration was 4.8% in 2016, the same as in 2008. By contrast, the proportion in the UK was 0.4% and Germany was 0.5% and the EU as a whole was 2.3%. The other EU countries with persistently high, or growing, proportions of “precarious workers” were Croatia (8.4%), Slovenia (4.5%), and Poland (4.5%). Social instability could therefore readily develop here too. However, it should be kept in mind that the ease of operating as an independent contractor in the UK probably underestimates the ultimate precariousness in that labour market, especially in the light of Brexit-induced cutbacks.