It’s a little music that has been going up for a few years. Wage would become a thing of boomersa concept dead and buried for those under 35 who only dream of one thing: to be freelance. However, according to the latest Apec study, the truth seems more nuanced. For the sake of objectivity, there is no question of titling “No, the workforce is not dead” as does the Association. Especially since, now, almost half of young people under 35 find more disadvantages to employment than advantages.
A good image of the workforce, but there is a “but”
Of course, the 650 young people questioned in the study* have a rather good image of the workforce, at least 80% of them. A score, however, lower than that of their elders faced with the same question.
Those under 35 associate wage employment with the words “security” “salary” “stability”. They believe that there is good in the classic contract and in the first place, of course, the regular salary (for 60% of them), followed by paid holidays (42%) and social protection (40%).
But these percentages raise questions. So paid vacation would not be overwhelmingly approved? So the young people, who we were told wanted more of a personal life, wouldn’t care? In fact, they do not count on the wage for that, since they are only 24% to think that this form of work allows them to separate the personal life from the professional life.
The reproaches leveled at wage labor by young people
If the wage-earning system is therefore only relatively suitable for at least 35-year-olds, do they rather decide in favor of independence? Yes and no, as if the young people of France were all Normans. They appreciate the wage system, but find that the formula has drawbacks. Only 47% find more advantages than independencewhile all older employees answer favorably and in the majority to this question.
Freelance work? Yes, but…
But suddenly, are they on the way to self-employment? Not exactly, or at least not all of them, or at least not right away. They are certainly not than 48% to cling to the status of employee – the lowest score of all age groups. But even so, only 15% would prefer to be self-employed. The remaining 37% are rather in a form of hesitation. They are willing to give up wage labor, but only under certain conditions.
A fantasy independence
The reasons for this waltz-hesitation may be found in the reproaches that the under 35s address to the wage-earning model, and therefore, believe that they could transform them into an advantage by becoming independent. First, at 35%, is the weight of the hierarchy for employees. Almost at the same level, we find the lack of freedom in organization and decision-making, as well as the lack of recognition. Finally, the fact of working for the benefit of other people only comes in 4th position, while this pecuniary question of working for one’s sole benefit is logically at the top of the benefits of independence.
As if young employees had a somewhat distorted image of self-employment. As if the need for recognition could be provided by independence, working alone, as a service provider for a company that does not necessarily have the reflex to recognize the work of its customers. At least not more than that of its employees.
The butter of independence and the money of the butter of the wage-earners
If they want to be independent but not quite, what are young people under 35 really looking for? It is by listening to those who want to take to their heels and leave their CDI that we get some answers. Apec asked them what prospects would make them want to stay and, for 45% of them, this is the flexibility, much more than remuneration, which they only cite in second position, with 13 points less. Follow in bulk, a better access to traininga participation in decisionsand one shortening of the hierarchy.
On the business side, a necessary adaptation?
So many criteria which recall, of course, the dogmas of independence. In fact, it would seem that young people under 35 only wish for one thing, but it is already a lot: the advantages of freelancing combined with those of salaried employment.
They will be told that you cannot ask for the impossible. But in their current fight against the shortage of candidates, companies are undoubtedly bound to this impossible. In any case, they must take into account the 4 profiles of young executives and their different relationship to the workforce:
* Study “Young executives and employees: a form of employment they appreciate but would like to see evolve”, Apec March 2023
Two fields of inquiry made it possible to carry out this study:
- Online survey (October 2022) of a sample of 650 young executives representative of private sector executives under the age of 35 in terms of gender, age, sector of activity, company size and region .
- Online survey conducted in November or December 2022 with a sample of 1,000 or 2,000 executives, representative of executives in the private sector in terms of gender, age, sector of activity, company size and region.