As well as pupils and students returning to school, each new academic year sees many young people enter the workforce. Every year, between 700,000 and 800,000 young people enter the job market, either as recent graduates or school leavers, not to mention the 300,000 to 400,000 new apprentices and trainees.
These young people are sometimes perceived as less loyal and committed to their companies, quick to change jobs and professions. They can also be seen as more “outspoken”, with increased demands for flexibility in the workplace (non-fixed working hours, telecommuting, etc.) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). This vision of young workers is sometimes associated to the recruitment tensions and high turnover rates observed in almost all sectors.
But do the figures and studies carried out on the subject attest to a real difference with previous generations?
Two recent publications run counter to this idea.
APEC, in conjunction with Terra Nova, conducted a study on the relationship to work of working people under 30, published in February 2024. Focusing on managerial employees under private law, the study made several interesting observations:
- No objective difference was observed between the commitment of under-30s and older employees. Young people feel just as invested in their work and their organization, have a good level of trust in the various players within the company, and accept hierarchical authority.
- Young workers (executives and non-executives) are described as generally committed, satisfied and combative in their professional lives. They are characterized by a strong desire to learn, progress and evolve.
- Regardless of the generation surveyed, the most important criteria for appreciating work are the same: executives first want a job that pays, then is interesting, and, in third position, easy to reconcile with their personal life.
- CSR does not seem to be a strong direct driver for choosing an employer. There can be a stronger negative effect, though, if the company is seen as having a poor social or environmental impact, or as engaged in “greenwashing”.
Flexible working, especially teleworking, is appreciated by young people, but punctually, more so than every day, for instance. Some fear that too great a distance with their colleagues might penalize them in their progress within the company.
In parallel, the DJEPVA barometer on youth, published in early 2024, also looks at young people’s relationship with work in 2023. It confirms the importance of remuneration as a criterion of choice, as well as the real but measured interest in telecommuting, and the desire for rapid access to a high degree of responsibility and autonomy.
So young people do not appear to have fundamentally different expectations or criteria from other generations. But are they more inclined to change jobs or companies?
A first factor to consider is the increasingly high level of qualification among young people. The number of higher education graduates has been rising steadily every year (52% of those leaving initial training on average between 2019 and 2021), while the number of young people with no qualifications has been falling (around 12% today, compared with 20% in the early 2000s).
At the same time, the turnover rate in France has been rising steadily since the early 2000s. Now estimated at between 15% and 20%, it does seem to be driven, in part, by young employees, with several surveys showing that they are more likely to change jobs quickly. However, this is not incompatible with the commitment they are capable of making to a company or sector, as highlighted by the above-mentioned studies.
Moreover, having entered the job market several years after the 2009 crisis, the under-30s have started working in a context of recruitment tensions and skills shortages which has been rather favourable to them. The COVID-19 crisis period stands as an exception, with a sharp slowdown in the economy and employment. With unemployment declining in recent years, and the number of companies in France increasing to 3.6 million in 2023, young people can afford to change companies relatively easily if the conditions offered to them seem unsatisfactory. The DJEPVA barometer, for example, points out that excessive stress and workload would be the first reason why young people would leave their company.
Another interesting fact is that under-30s have a more pessimistic view of the future than older employees, with more than half of the young people surveyed by the DJEPVA barometer believing they will experience periods of unemployment during their career.
In short, young people are evolving in a seemingly unstable and uncertain context, but in which they are nonetheless aware that they have assets to leverage, thanks in particular to an increasingly high level of qualification. Recruiters are spontaneously more inclined to look for young profiles than, for example, older employees, who face major employability challenges. In 2023, 58% of 55 to 64 year-olds were employed in France, below the European Union average (63.9%).
In conclusion: age-specific initiatives with limited impact?
Therefore, policies aimed at young working people may be based on a distorted vision of them. The figures show more significant differences in expectations, perceptions and criteria between different social classes and professional categories than between age groups. For example, executives generally declare themselves more satisfied with their jobs and working conditions than white-collar and blue-collar workers.
Thus, these factors should be taken into account when developing attractiveness strategies, for example.
Key figures:
- 700-800 000 new young workers enter the job market in France each year
- 47% of young people surveyed by the APEC et Terra Nova consider work to be more or equally important than other aspects of their lives (vs. 47% of 30 to 44-year-olds and 36% of those aged 45 and over)
- 52% of higher education on average between 2019 and 2021
