Social pressure, a tough job market and poor conditions: Young workers who like their jobs but want to leave

They like their work, yet they are preparing to leave it. A study by France’s Centre for Studies and Research on Qualifications, known as Cereq, highlights a striking paradox among young employees: most say they are satisfied with their jobs and professionally fulfilled, but many still want a different future.

More than one young person in five who is currently employed is looking for another job alongside their existing one. The trend no longer concerns only workers who feel unfulfilled by their responsibilities. More than a third of those surveyed want to change careers, move into another sector or even relocate.

The researchers identify three possible explanations. The first is a desire to escape what they describe as the restrictive framework surrounding young people in France. Compared with neighboring countries, French youth face strong social pressure to find a place within hierarchies “permanently.” They must choose their educational path early, leaving less room to experiment and potentially creating frustration.

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We propose that professional retraining can be a way to restore meaning to a constrained path.

The authors write that retraining, like returning to education, may offer a way to give meaning back to a path that was constrained from the outset. Such choices can allow young people to regain control over lives whose first stages were decided too early.

The second explanation is a demand for reciprocity. “Young people behave toward companies as companies behave toward them,” the researchers write. People under 25 often begin their working lives through internships, apprenticeships, temporary work or fixed-term contracts. They are moving away from the career model their parents knew, in which workers stayed with one company, and are instead internalizing professional mobility as the norm. If employers do not offer stability, the researchers argue, young workers do not feel obliged to offer it in return.

Finally, the study points to working conditions at the beginning of a career, which it says are often more degraded than in neighboring European countries. That completes the picture, feeding the desire to move on even when the current job itself is not viewed negatively.

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Young people behave toward companies as companies behave toward them.