Nina Droff, edited by Yanis Darras 10:37 a.m., September 27, 2022

While the government wants to reform the French pension system to extend the contribution period or raise the retirement age, many seniors are struggling to find work.

Passing the 50-year mark, it becomes difficult to find a job.

Work longer.

This is the wish of Emmanuel Macron who is thinking about the best method to propose his pension reform.

If the Head of State and the government are still hesitating on the best formula to adopt between extending the contribution period or raising the retirement age, one thing is certain: the reform will be completed.

Work longer, but for what?

This is a question that arises regularly among the population, and particularly among seniors. 

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Young people first

Because, after 50, the challenge is often to find a job.

This is the case of Christine, 59, who has been looking for a job in the trade sector for more than six months.

She sends applications every day, but often without a response. 

"In certain positions in which I reached the final three times, I was preferred to someone younger and I was told so because we could hire someone who was potentially 10 to 15 years ahead. him, which is obviously not my case."

"Not fast enough"

According to her, finding work at her age is a real obstacle course.

In particular, his age but also his salary expectations.

“Too experienced, too expensive… You should lower your requirements. I really have the impression that you have to beg now, when you are like me 50 years old, to find a job”, she regrets. 

Same feeling for Marie-Claire, a teacher converted to social work, unemployed for almost two years.

She fears that with a retirement age of 65, her search will only be more difficult.

"I don't have the ease of young people with computers. I don't have the ease of someone who has just come out with his fresh diploma and with his knowledge in his head," he explains. -she.

And to add: "I am already considered not fast enough, not efficient enough. If this is the case at 50, what do you say about someone 65?"

The only option for Marie-Claire: to convert.

The former teacher is now thinking of trying to fit into a sector in tension, such as helping the person to find a job more easily.