Young people in France — including some who haven’t even entered the job market yet — protested Thursday against the government’s push to raise the retirement age. FRANCE 24 spoke to an expert on French employment matters to better understand this phenomenon.

One of the most contentious elements of the French government’s controversial pension reform is the increase of the legal retirement age from 62 to 64, something that would normally seem a long way from the minds of young people. On Thursday, however, students blocked access to some universities and high schools, and youth-led protests were held in Paris and Lyon as part of nationwide strikes and demonstrations against the pension bill under debate in parliament.

For a generation already worried about inflation, uncertain job prospects and climate change, the retirement bill is stirring up broader questions about the value of work. FRANCE 24 talked to Marc Loriol, a sociologist and researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and author of Les vies prolongées des usines Japy ("The long lives of the Japy factories") who studies the relationship between the French and the workplace.

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