The Global Sociology Blog

At least according to sociologist Louis Chauvel in this Le Monde interview, and it is especially stuck for young adults based on an INSEE report. This 18-24 age class is faced with precarization. For this age cohort, the unemployment rate has been close to 25% for years. The French economy has gotten used to not paying this group adequately and they have been long treated as cheap labor as governments multiplied unfavorable contracts with fiscal incentives for businesses to hire them on the cheap. This has not resulted in greater (albeit cheaper) employment but simply in higher umeployment and, as already mentioned, greater precarization. This cohort has a harder time than their counterparts in the Anglo-Saxon or Northern European countries gaining stable employment. Their fate is comparable to the "600 Euros generation" in Greece or the Mileuristas (those who make €1,000) in Spain.

The generation born around 1975 is a bit better off because it benefited from a better access to degrees and better economic growth. When that cohort entered the labor market between 2003 and 2005 did so under better conditions thank, in part, to the first wave of baby-boomer retirement. But then, the economy started deteriorating and the next cohort ended up not facing the same favorable situation. Since 1994, the rate of success at the baccalaureat is stuck at 62% and there is now a inflation and devaluing of college degrees.

According to Chauvel, the INSEE report shows that if one enters the labor market around 24 under unfavorable conditions, persistent difficulties can be expected. This will not be a temporary state. At the same time, those over 45 never really recovered from the recession and high unemployment of the 1980s. So, for Chauvel, the French paradox is that one is young, older and older and old, younger and younger.

At the same time, the report’s data date from 2006 in a context where the major global depression was not on the horizon yet. It is the 18-24 cohort that will pay the heaviest toll for this crisis. And for Chauvel, the consequences will last a good long time, probably beyond 2025.