The permanent contract is no longer enough to meet the expectations of young workers, who now favor career paths combining stability, mobility and skills development.
THE permanent contract (CDI) has long constituted the norm and the horizon of the French labor market. A guarantee of stability, social integration and projection into the future, it has structured professional career paths for decades. But this centrality is today questioned, particularly in the light of the profound transformations which affect the trajectories of young workers. The figures remain revealing: at the end of 2025, the unemployment rate for 15-24 year olds was still around 21.5%, more than double that of the entire active population. This persistent situation reflects structural difficulties in accessing sustainable employment, but also a growing gap between the forms of employment offered and the expectations of a generation faced with a labor market both tense and selective.
Because beyond the indicators, it is the relationship to work that is evolving. For a growing proportion of 18-30 year olds, the permanent contract no longer constitutes the only horizon, as shown several recent works by CREDOC on the aspirations of young people. Not out of rejection of stability, but because it is no longer enough to meet their aspirations. Mobilitydiversity of experiences, rapid skills development, search for meaning: these dimensions profoundly redefine the criteria for job attractiveness.
Professional trajectories thus become more fragmented, less linear. Temporary or hybrid forms of employment are no longer just endured; they can also constitute levers for integration and skills development. They allow you to explore different professional environments, accelerate learning and, ultimately, strengthen employability.
In this context, the very notion of security deserves to be questioned. Can it still be limited to the stability of a contract? Or should it be thought of more broadly, as the ability to build a lasting career path, despite transitions?
The CDI has long embodied this security alone. But in a world of work marked by rapid change, this approach shows its limits. True protection increasingly lies in the ability to evolve, acquire new skills and adapt to economic transformations.
From then on, new forms of employment emerged, seeking to reconcile two long-opposed requirements: stability and flexibility. These hybrid devices, like the CDI employabilityoffer a secure contractual framework while allowing diversity of missions and professional mobility. They reflect a progressive adaptation of the labor market to contemporary expectations, without renouncing the foundations of the social model.
The CDI is not obsolete, however. It remains an essential pillar, particularly for structuring certain trajectories and providing benchmarks in an uncertain environment. But it can no longer be the only response to the diversity of situations and aspirations.
The challenge is therefore not to replace one model with another, but to broaden the field of possibilities. It is about thinking about a labor market capable of articulating different forms of security, adapted to more open, more evolving, and often less predictable paths.
This transformation calls for collective reflection. Companies, social partners and public authorities are faced with the same requirement: rethinking the balance between protection and adaptability.
Because behind the question of permanent employment, it is the broader question of professional security in the 21st century that is at stake. A security that is no longer based solely on the duration of a contract, but on the ability, for each person, to build a solid and sustainable path over time.
