Posted Jan 16, 2023, 6:19 PMUpdated on Jan 16, 2023 at 7:17 PM
Career path, age, desired occupations, income… While the profile of active executives is relatively well defined, that of unemployed executives is much less so and, a fortiori, what distinguishes them from other job seekers.
Published on Monday, a joint study by the Association for Executive Employment (Apec) and Pôle Emploi corrects this shortcoming. Main conclusion: the persons concerned emerge better from an occupational accident than other employees without their status protecting them from certain social determinisms, which affect the over 55s in particular.
In a very buoyant labor market since 2015, and even more so since the end of the third confinement, business executives enjoy a very favorable unemployment rate. It was 4.1% on average in 2021, compared to 7.9% for all assets. “However, this situation of near-full employment hides contrasting situations and much more difficult situations, in particular for the oldest”, nuance the director general of Apec, Gilles Gateau.
Peak in June and September
If we turn to Pôle emploi, the public operator listed at the end of June 2022 485,000 executives registered in category A, B or C (all of France excluding Mayotte), that is to say unemployed or in reduced activity during this month. Or 9% of the corresponding total workforce: more often women (45%, versus 37% for their counterparts in employment) and a few less graduates (20% do not have a BAC+2 level, six points more).
The figure seems high, it must be put into perspective because it varies greatly depending on the time of year, with a traditional peak in June and September, when young graduates enter the job market, lower in January and february. “Young graduates do not stay on the lists for long,” emphasize the authors of the study.
Quick list exit for recent graduates
In fact, executives find work more quickly. Between June 2020 and September 2021, one in two had found a temporary or permanent point of fall within six months of registering with Pôle Emploi, compared to 43% for other jobseekers. The difference narrows slightly after 12 months (64% versus 58%), but remains more favourable.
“This faster exit from the lists of executive job seekers is driven by those under 35, among whom we find young higher education graduates”, abound Apec and Pôle emploi. Overall, a third find a job corresponding to the job sought, the others change it, mostly young people.
The situation is much less favorable for unemployed executives with few qualifications, living in a priority area of the city, but especially seniors, regardless of how the figures are taken. Thus, at the end of June 2022, of the 95,000 long-term unemployed managers identified, i.e. those who remained unemployed for 12 of the previous 15 months, 39% had more than 55%, versus 18% for under 35 years old.
«While the dynamism of the executive employment market is maintained in terms of recruitment, access to employment is still difficult for certain populations sums up the director general of Pôle emploi, Jean Bassères.