Troubles finding a job? How does the future look like?
Since I lived in Europe I became a witness of an aging population, the EU enlargement, a global labour market, more weekly working hours and an always older retirement age. Many students are worried here in Germany for the future, finding a job is hard and me... I am affraid once I finish my university, AIESEC etc. I will start working in a company untill the very day of my dead.
People say if the social system doesn't reform it will colapse, and the changes are in plan, some of them we can see. Now we pay tuition fees to most universities in Germany, and in countries like France... you see it below...
How does it look in your country? How do students in your country feel about the future? Hope to hear from you!
 Demonstrations have been taking place across the country |
French students have been demonstrating, sometimes violently, against a bew labour law for the under-26s which will make it easier for businesses to hire and fire young people.
Q. What does the controversial law say?
The law creating the First Employment Contract (Contrat Premiere Embauche or CPE) was passed by parliament as part of a broader bill on equal opportunities which will come into effect in April.
The CPE is a new work contract for under-26s with a two-year trial period. In that period, employers can terminate the contract without having to offer an explanation or give prior warning. For other employees, the trial period is usually 1-3 months.
After the two-year trial period, the contract reverts to a standard full-time contract.
posted by M at 10:33 PM
14 Comments:
Europe has got to stop overprotecting their workers because that will discourage hiring and investments.
European countries unemployement rate is consistently higher than the US, where the labour market is much much more flexible.
10:06 PM
Working here in Germany for a large company, I saw the company had to keep hundreds of people in the payroll even if they were not working on anything anymore as they were not on retiring age, and they had no more tasks for them! It is pretty crazy! On the other hand if you can be fired for no reason being young it is also quite crazy. I think these years of reform and adapting to it are hard for everyone.
10:32 PM
being young is a GREAT age to be fired for no reason. It sucks only when you are old.
A company that frequently fires their employees for no reason will get judged by the employees marketplace and will not be able to staff its business.
There will be extreme cases but in the whole picture, being able to hire and fire employees at reasonable liberty fundamentals to healthy business environment.
If employees are free to move around from job to job without any restriction (imagine if you are not allowed to leave your job without giving reasons), then business should operate at reasonable liberties.
11:03 PM
On one hand I can understand the young people in France, the possibility of being fired without even given a reason is just not right.
On the other hand what happens now is insane. It's not about social security anymore. It's about destroying, not even only letting out anger, but destroying other peoples lives, their life that maybe was a shop along the road of the crowd.
And also: There comes a person along in French politics, that dares to challenge the status quo. That dares to make changes needed so badly. And what do leftish parties see: The chance on a purpose that will unite them (because they quarrel over everything else): Being against this policy!
This unification of leftish wing in France was also needed and it found response. (Being against something seems to be so easy to channel all sorts of needs.)
In the beginning of the end it was sort of an election campaign starting early which turned out to become an anarchy.
But why?
Is todays youth missing a purpose in life? Do we need a new ideologie?
What's wrong with this world?
11:04 PM
To answer dody: "being young is a GREAT age to be fired for no reason. It sucks only when you are old."
That's maybe true when you have a good education. What if you don't?
What if you get the sack and don't find a new job anymore? If you get unemployed. You'd want to work and start building up your life, but you can't. You can't even afford to get a new education because you don't have the money.
If you apply for even the shittiest job you can find and they tell you, that you are overqualified for this job? Or they tell you that, you don't fit because you cannot give any references?
What if all this happens to you and you loose any perspective you once had on life?
One one hand I think you are right that if you are young, there should always be a way to find a new job.
But hey: These are fears that are real to people! They don't want more competition! They don't see a personal advantage in it, as it's already really tough out there without this law.
This is not about the big picture but about personal fears and pressure.
11:17 PM
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12:47 AM
Yalam,
There are two choices :
A flexible labour practice with produce low unemployment (meaning more people get the chance to work but with less 'security' for each job)
A rigid labour market with high unemployment level (meaning LESS people get the chance to work but comfortable living for who do)
Yalam, imagine if you are a business owner. If it is impossible for you to fire your employees, what would you do?
1. You will be very very reluctant to hire young inexperienced workers (because they are unknown quantity); closing down many opportunities for young people to get their first taste of full time job.
2. You stop hiring.
A rigid labour market is actually a lot more unfair than a liberal one.
About competition, every year there are xxx thousands of NEW competition by new graduates. If your economy is not productive enough to absorb these people, you will end up with high unemployment.
MORE Education is not an answer to high employment rate; a flexible and healthy business environment is. Make it easy for young people to start their own business (capital support, low regulation, flexible labour practice) and you will generate bazillion of small businesses. The US for example, is powered (I think around 80%) by small and medium businesses.
6:24 AM
I think this law raises alot of eyebrows around the world, but more importantly raises a an important question:
1) Does it work the other way around? Can a person who's on probation under 26 just up and go?
I think the reason there's so much rioting is not so much in anticipation of arbitrary firing of under 26 year old's but mainly due to the provoking way in which it was placed. Could they not have at least required the company to give a valid reason, this reason could range from anything -
- Sorry, we don't have a place for you anymore
- Sorry, but you suck at your job (even this is a reason)
Companies can't be expected to keep employees that are redundant nor should employees be fired arbitrarily.
Dody, you're right, SME's are a major contributor in the US and seemingly in most growing economies around the world. But the labour laws and difficulty young people would face in Europe that don't really nurture the enterprising entrepreneurial nature of their youth is a huge obstacle.
6:49 AM
I just wonder how this will affect families of immigrants in France. Many that do not have as many opportunities or access to highly skilled jobs due to a legacy of repression and prejudiced employment practices.
Will this give them the opportunity to have more access to better jobs or put them at a disadvantage in terms of fair and liveable wages?
I don't know the answer, but am sure curious to see what the affects might be.
6:53 AM
It will give them a better access to any jobs; which is a luxury right now. With a high youth unemployement rate in France, heck, even shitty jobs are gold.
7:45 AM
I would like to add a fact to the discussion, fresh from the economic lecture this morning: Switzerland has had an unemployment rate of around 5% in the last years. Internationally, this is seen as a very low. This low unemployment rate is despite the Swiss rather restrictive (compared to i.e. the US) labour laws.
What you are suggesting, Dody, is moving to more informal labour conditions. That means: less restrictive contracts, less control and more flexible work conditions.
This process is already happening in Europeen countries since a few years, especially in so called low-skilled jobs like cleaning agency.
I did not think yet to much about the macroeconomic effects, but I strongly believe that people with little education and with little flexibility can suffer a lot from such flexible and informal work conditions. At uni, we had a look at a case study of immigrant workers and low skilled workers working in cleaning agencies. The constraints they face by the increased flexibility - i.e. having to have 3 jobs at once while raising a family on their own - are harsh to take.
About France: It depends how the education is financed. If it is to a big extent over part time job, it is a very bad idea to have such an increasing informality and flexibility.
There are always trade offs between having a great economy and protecting the people working in there - where do we draw the line? Not an easy decision for sure.
Verena
1:02 PM
I think Sabaza makes a good point. Entrepreneurship in European schools is not something fostered. People most likely expect to finish school and be able to fins a stable job for many years. Something that the previous generation still had. I think that it is quite natural that people don't want to let go so easily, and that changes in... for example the amount of hours to be worked every week cause great anger. People here value very much their spare time and what they can do in it, and they don't want to sacrifice it. Europe is reluctant to change becuase it is hard to see the long term benefit in it, and also the need of it as a consequence of what we enjoy today (free market economies and open borders).
I think though that the thought of everyone being not indispensable is quite a bad thing, that's what I observed in the US. Not knowing if you will have a job tomorrow morning after the meeting this night might be a horrifying thing. So as knowing you have to sacrifice yourself to the limits to provide your children with decent education, and that maybe if you don't make it, they will have to get loans and stuff.
Speaking about immigrants in Europe, of course it all depends on your nationality, your background and legal status, but things can be pretty hard for immigrants. There are many people that would love to work and they simply are not able to while many people arround them can do them, and this is what creates the feeling of injustice that makes riots happen.
This is a matter of economics yes, but in this case, it is something that touches peoples lives directly and which benefit is hard to appreciate for most.
1:18 PM
In the US there is such thing as unfair dismissal.
The most liberal labour practice only apply to business with less than 10 employees. With bigger companies, you have more benefits and job protection laws.
This multiple tiers of labour employment law and the ease of starting a new business creates a pretty dynamic economic system and it works pretty OK for a country with 400 or so millions of people.
Worrying whether you will have a job tomorrow is actually a problem you want to have. If you are unemployed, you don't even have that luxury.
A smaller country like Switzerland will only need to generate xxx number of new jobs every year to keep the unemployment level low and you have the chance to benefit in breakthrough projects that can generate 100 or 1000 jobs. But for bigger countries, the need to generate a much higher number of new jobs and that ability is not linear nor proportionate to the size of the population.
2:50 PM
As someone who actually hires young people, I would like to say that businesses do not "just fire people with no reason". Poeple are a valuable asset for any business which is seeking profit.
1:47 PM
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