PARIS. Hundreds of young people gathered last week for a meeting of the State Employment Agency to fill workplaces in front of her summer tourist season.

Among them was Umeima, a 17-year-old high school student who is looking for a summer job in the hospitality sector. “I list my professional skills, my education, my qualifications, my main interests and the languages ​​I speak on my resume,” she explains. However, from the point of view of employment agencies, resumes of candidates are no longer considered necessary.

As in 2022, these offices are struggling to find willing workers, with 200,000 jobs remaining vacant, according to France’s hotel chamber. To fill in the gaps, candidate selection methods have been significantly relaxed. “We follow Anglo-Saxon methods. We do not necessarily rely on the candidate’s skills, his studies and his career, but mainly on his experience and desire,” says Thomas Bandier, head of a job search company, on the France Info network.

In 2022, Accor’s hotel group launched “No Resume Days” in which company executives reached out to young people in disadvantaged areas to find staff for the hotel group’s 1,500 seasonal workers. In an effort to attract young people, Accor promises significantly higher wages than other seasonal workers. But money isn’t everything, and many young people are put off by the hotel’s irregular hours and the questionable quality of living conditions in temporary jobs.

Difficulties

In 2022, the French Ministry of Labor reported that 75% of businesses had difficulty finding staff. The first hurdle, according to the ministry’s study, concerns unfavorable working conditions in sectors that are notorious for their difficulties, such as agriculture, catering, hotels, transport and healthcare. 85% of employers pointing to difficult working conditions face problems in finding employees. On the contrary, the dream of most French people is the creation of a small or medium-sized business. In 2022, the country broke the European record for company creation with over a million new businesses. According to the Department of Labor, 24% of respondents to a major 2022 survey said they were looking to acquire or start a company, up three percentage points from 2021.

Self-employment is even more popular among French people under 30. Almost every second young person (49%) is ready to open his own nightclub. When asked about the time horizon for their efforts, young people say they would like to start their own business in the next two years. The ideal scenario for the respondents would be to create a new business in cooperation with family members or partners.