France reports falling youth employment and growing over‑indebtedness

A French study released in July 2025 shows that two years after graduation, only 59% of professional high‑school students and apprentices (CAP to BTS) hold salaried jobs, a drop of 2.3 percentage points from the 2022 cohort. Permanent contracts (CDI or civil service) fell to 27%, down 1.7 points. Employment prospects vary by qualification: 41% of CAP holders, 57% of professional baccalaureate graduates and 70% of BTS alumni are employed. The sectors with the highest placement rates are community services (67%) and transport/manutention (65%). For apprentices, salaried employment remains high at 73% (down 0.4 points) while CDI rates slipped to 48% (down 1.3 points).

The Observatoire de l’inclusion bancaire reported that in the first quarter of 2026 young adults aged 18‑29 accounted for 15% of new over‑indebtedness dossiers, up from 12% a year earlier and five times the share in 2022. Overall, 150,000 over‑indebtedness cases were filed, a 9.8% rise from 2024 but still 32% below the 2015 peak. Mini‑credits and payment‑by‑installments now represent about 15% of consumer credit, fueling the debt surge. A new EU consumer‑credit directive (CCD2) will take effect in November to tighten regulation. By the end of 2025, banks had identified 4.8 million financially fragile clients, a 5.1% increase year‑on‑year.