declining job high quality, a threat to less well-off middle classes | EUROtoday

18.4%: that is the share of people belonging to the least well-off middle class who had a fixed-term contract in 2019, in accordance to INSEE information. This proportion has tripled since 1996 (6.8%), and has risen considerably since 2011 (14.5%), at a price that isn’t present in different segments of the inhabitants.

For all households getting into the middle classes, the share of fixed-term contracts (CDD) is half as low (9.5%), and has even fallen since 2011. This determine illustrates a clear deterioration within the state of affairs of the employment of the less prosperous middle classes in recent times.

This is highlighted by the economist Pierre Courtioux, throughout the framework of the scientific mediation undertaking “What do we know about work? », from the Interdisciplinary Laboratory for the Evaluation of Public Policies (Liepp), broadcast in collaboration with Liepp and the Presses de Sciences Po on the Emploi channel of Lemonde.fr.

The middle classes are one of the most discussed categories in the social sciences, to the point that it is difficult to find a consensus among researchers on its limits. In this analysis, it is the income that determines the position of an individual: people whose standard of living is between 60% and 200% of the median standard of living [la moitié des personnes a un niveau de vie supérieur, l’autre moitié un niveau de vie inférieur] belong to the middle classes in a broad sense.

In the case of a single person, this income is between 14,497 and 48,322 euros per year. In 2019, 78% of the population fell into this category, compared to 14.6% of individuals at risk of poverty and 7.4% of so-called “well-to-do” people. By “lower middle class”the creator designates the phase of the inhabitants whose degree is between 60% and 80% of the French median, ie 16.2% of the inhabitants.

Pierre Courtioux emphasizes the ” resilience “ historical past of this broad class in France: after the 2008 disaster, it didn’t expertise huge impoverishment. As in Belgium or the Netherlands, that is due to a variety of guidelines that restrict inequalities, akin to a protecting unemployment insurance coverage system and the existence of minimal wages.

The weight of inflation

This protecting standing is now referred to as into query, to the detriment of the get together “less well off”, who’re vulnerable to slipping into poverty. The enhance within the retirement age and the tightening of unemployment profit guidelines instantly have an effect on this sub-category, since staff and staff, who’re extra affected by unemployment or well being issues on the finish of their profession, are overrepresented.

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