When she thinks about how easily she found her job as a barista at a major coffee shop chain, 24-year-old Chloë seems to be talking about the distant past, if not the past. It was in 2019. Since then, the health and economic crisis has passed there and, with it, a year 2020 made of refusals to hire, non-responses and financial difficulties. After nearly a year of looking for a job, without any financial support, the young Marseillaise hopes that 2021 will be more lenient and that the catering sector will hire again.
Like thousands of young people, looking for a job for almost a year, Chloë has known long moments of discouragement. “We want to find work, but there isn’t any”, she responds to speeches that accuse young people of lacking motivation. Spurned from a contract as a waitress in altitude catering in January 2020, the young woman thought she would find a job in early spring. The appearance of the coronavirus and the confinement that followed it prevented it.
In April, this Marseillaise, who has several months of experience in the restaurant business, wrote cover letters to become a waitress or even a saleswoman. “I got no response. I was disgusted. During the second confinement, I re-applied, no response. “ Never has she been unemployed for so long. “My profile and my experience appealed to fast food brands, says this graduate of a BTS in insurance. If I can’t find it, it’s 100% Covid. “ Her future had brightened up in October, when the Pralou ski area recruited her for the winter season. The closure of the ski lifts has left her in limbo: without a signed seasonal contract, she does not benefit from partial unemployment. Too young to touch the RSA, Chloë lives with her father again. “At our age, we want to get started in life, buy a car…, take an apartment”, she sighs.
Civic service to regain self-confidence
Returning to live with her parents, Marjorie also had to resolve. In September, the 20-year-old completed her second year of a master’s degree at the Sorbonne, in international law, in addition to her diploma in international relations at Sciences-Po Toulouse. Not having been able to complete an end-of-studies internship within the allotted time, the young Marseillaise lost hope of integrating professionally and suffered from being financially dependent on her family. In October 2020, when the payment of her scholarship was stopped, Marjorie, then aged 24, and therefore not eligible for the RSA, found herself without resources. She then decided to find a “Food work”: a three-month contract as a cashier in a supermarket. “If I had been entitled to RSA, I could have devoted myself fully to my job search, she imagines. It would be good if there was an exceptional financial assistance between leaving school and the first job. And a mandatory orientation meeting with the local mission, Apec or Pôle emploi. “
At the start of the year, the young woman admits to suffering silences with each of her candidatures in NGOs and associations working in her field of competence (human rights, environmental law, women’s rights). So she opted for a six-month civic service, at the Permanent Center of Initiative for the Environment of La Ciotat, compensated at 580 euros per month, which she will begin soon. “This will be an opportunity to accumulate experience. I have lost so much confidence that I find it hard to tell myself that I could be a project manager ”, she admits. When she chose to specialize in a master’s degree in international cooperation in 2018, far from current health concerns, Marjorie suspected that she would not find a position immediately after graduating, but she did not imagine a job search so complicated. Today, job vacancies have become scarce. For her as for everyone.
RSA, far from being a laziness trap
400 kilometers away, Assan, a social worker, also without activity, is also facing the wall. But he thinks he has found the solution: job creation. In its branch, social assistance, needs are not lacking. They even exploded with the eruption of Covid-19. The new posts should therefore follow. But the “Whatever the cost” obviously does not manage to get through the door of the departmental councils, the first employers of social workers. “It is not the fault of the departments but of the State, which does not provide the meansenough » , judge the Toulousain. Since his diploma in July 2019, the young man has not been able to find a stable job and has alternated between replacement CDD and periods of unemployment. “My unemployment benefit entitlements are soon over. If I hadn’t accepted a two-week replacement contract over the holiday season, I would have nothing. “
Himself less than 25 years old sweeps the arguments brought by the President of the Republic to reject the requests to open the RSA to the youngest. “Macron had justified himself on Brut by saying: ‘I do not want to encourage laziness.’ But nobody wants to be at RSA! On the other hand, it would be a short-term solution for those under 25. “Like Assan, Chloë does not see RSA as a laziness trap. “The RSA is good, but you can’t live on it. If I touched him, it wouldn’t stop me looking for a job, it would just help me survive. “
Likewise, the solution provided, in theory, to each young Frenchman, by the government plan “One young person, one solution” does not seem real to them. “I have the impression that it is not enough , tempers Marjorie, about the device. Their website may be useful for some, but not for skilled jobs. “Few of the offers that match Marjorie’s qualifications and the salary level she is eligible for. And when looking for a job as a social worker in the Toulouse region on this platform, no offer is displayed. Assan also noted this in his research at Pôle emploi. The only positions offered never correspond to his profession. “I had to make an appointment with a subcontracting consulting company. It was lunar. My interlocutor did not know my field at all. “
Only 90 euros per month with the youth guarantee
Thibault, a young agricultural seasonal worker who completes his off-season periods with short contracts, also remembers the support provided by Pôle emploi. Useless. After receiving job offers on farms at the other end of France, the Rouennais quickly understood that his contracts, he had to find them through his personal network. What he did.
Without unemployment benefit, the young Chloë discovered the existence of the youth guarantee, another device that the government is keen to develop. She approached the local mission of the southern districts of Marseille. File submitted, she hopes to benefit from this financial assistance, even if she does not expect a huge amount. “I think I’ll get 90 euros per month, maybe. It would at least allow me to financially support my father, who lives on a small pension. “
In return, the accompanied young person must invest in an active job search. Since the beginning of the year, Chloë has resumed her prospecting in the Marseille agglomeration, increasing the number of cover letters. “I broadened my research to civic services. But at 580 euros per month, that would not allow me to live because I am not entitled to RSA to supplement. “
Like Marjorie, the young woman hopes that 2021 will be more conducive to her professional integration. A stable job would give him the key to independent housing and a career in restaurant management.
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