Young people upbeat for 2014

SEVENTY per cent of young people think 2014 will be a better year than 2013, shows a new poll which reveals strong generational differences.

It comes as there are also signs of a more positive outlook for French industry.

A survey by the Polling Vox institute for 20 Minutes showed the 18-24-year-old group was the most optimistic at the start of this year, with the mood declining with age.

Only 64% of 25-34-year-olds feel upbeat about the year ahead, 47% of 35-49-year-olds, 39% of 50-64-year-olds and 24% of those aged 65 or more.

Sociologist Olivier Galland told 20 Minutes: “The young people’s optimism isn’t so unrealistic. They think the worst of the crisis is over and the economy has touched bottom; even if the recovery will be slow.”

This comes as things are also looking up in French industry, with firms looking to take on more people compared to 2013 and an increase in industrial production, which the latest figures show was up 1.3% in November after a drop of 0.5% the previous month.

Magazine Usine Nouvelle polled 400 industrial firms and found they planned to take on a total of 140,000 people in 2014, up from 100,000 in 2013.

The president of the Federation of Mechanical Industries, Jérôme Frantz, told the magazine: “If we take those firms that are picking up well again, because there are some, and those that feel like the time has come to get going with hiring that they had been putting off, we’re feeling, maybe not a gale, but a little breeze of optimism in the air.”

Photo: fotolia.com Yuri Arcurs