Young graduates have regained their health: compared to the difficulties they experienced in 2020, they find work more easily. Yet they are paid less and more often have the impression of doing a food job.
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We are almost back to pre-crisis levels. Young graduates, who make up the battalions of young executives, have almost overcome the trough of the wave they had faced during the health crisis. They even find work more quickly than before. The share of young people who found a job in a month or less after obtaining their diploma increased by five points compared to the promotion of 2019, says a study by Apec, the Association for the employment of executives .
However, not everyone benefits from this improvement. Some sectors are unable to climb the slope. If those who come out of the technological sectors have practically found employment rates similar to before the crisis, the young people who have followed the path of letters, languages or the arts are those who have the lowest employment rate. These remain hard hit by the crisis.
Those who find work have better employment conditions. This is a trend noted by Apec: nearly two-thirds of young graduates from the class of 2020 have obtained a permanent contract. This is five points higher than pre-crisis levels. Logically, the share of precarious contracts is decreasing and only concerns a third of young people in employment. But there is a downside: salaries. They are down for the second consecutive year. 30,000 euros per year, on average, for the 2020 promotion against 31,000 for the 2019. Another bad point: young men continue to receive more, as a starting salary, than young women.
Many young people see their first job as a food job. The share of those who think this is significant. They are two out of ten to talk about food jobs. For Apec, in order to access a job in a troubled period, young people were able to resign themselves to accepting positions that were not always in line with their training and their expectations.
If there are big winners in the class of 2020, it is the students who have practiced work-study. They are more satisfied with their work, they earn more and they find work faster. The formula is developing among future executives: four out of ten went through the work-study program in 2020, compared to only a third in 2015.