This is what I would expect, but in some places state tries hard to force self-employed consultants into permanent positions (not sure how France works in this regard). And if you mean external company consultants, they are not much cheaper.
I was thinking about external company consultant, since I have more experience with that type than self-employed (I'm a consultant, working for a big French consulting firm (Alten)). Also I think there's more available company consultant than self-employed consultants in France.
I agree that external company consultant are more expensive than employees, but on the other hand it's much more flexible than employees.
> in some places state tries hard to force self-employed consultants into permanent positions
I don't think that France is trying to do that, but it's from talking to a half-dozen of self-employed consultant, so anecdote, not checking the legislation. Still in France, regarding consultants, there's a limit on how long a consultant can stay in the same mission, I think that beyond three years, the law state that they should become employee where they are really working. But I don't know how much it is applied.
