“We start preparing orders early in the morning or late at night, because we have to deliver to customers quickly. With these staggered schedules, public transportation is not enough. “I had to turn down job offers because I couldn’t travel alone.”explains Emilie, 22 years old, who lives in the Lyon metropolitan area.
But the young woman hopes to get out of unemployment soon: she has enjoyed financial support that has already allowed her to obtain her license. You still have to buy a car…
Emilie is not an isolated case: in an OpinionWay survey for the Apprentis d’Auteuil foundation, published on November 14 and carried out among a representative sample of 2,001 young people aged 18 to 25, 76% of those surveyed claim to have already given up on a job or training for mobility reasons. Specifically, 61% of those interested mention inadequate schedules or lack of accessibility to public transportation, 56% the lack of a means of personal transportation.
Financial reasons
This obstacle also has economic reasons: 54% of young people complain about the price of gasoline, 43% about the price of tickets or public transport passes. These difficulties can also jeopardize their continued training or employment: 66% of those surveyed have already missed an exam, a professional meeting, been expelled from class or fired due to a transportation problem.
Young people aged 18 to 25 years labeled as “NEET” (“Not in education, employment or training”according to the English acronym, which designates people who do not work, study or receive training) are even worse: 83% of them say they have abandoned employment or training due to a mobility problem. Which is not surprising because “they accumulate disadvantages”analyzes Pascal Borniche, northeast regional director of the Apprentis d’Auteuil foundation, which supports them.
Due to rising real estate prices, low-income families, from which NEETs often come and still host them, often live in peripheral areas where public transportation is scarce. Less qualified than other young people, they only have access to industrial or service jobs (logistics, commerce, maintenance, etc.) with staggered hours in peripheral commercial or industrial areas that are equally poorly served.
In this setup, getting a job requires a car, but then they hit a financial roadblock: their parents struggle to finance the permit, the purchase of a vehicle, or gas.
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