Insee Focus · September 2025 · n° 361

In 2024, 15% of young people in employment considered themselves to be overskilled

In 2024, among the 7.6 million people aged 15 to 34 in employment who had completed their initial education, 83% stated that their skills were suited to what was required to do their job. However, 15% felt that their skills were superior: they considered themselves to be overskilled. Among these young people, people in unskilled positions were more likely to consider themselves overskilled than those in other professions, as were those on fixed‑term contracts (CDD or temporary work). At the extremes of the qualification scale, young people with a CAP (vocational upper secondary education certificate) and those with a long tertiary education qualification felt less often overskilled than those with a baccalaureate or a tertiary first short-cycle or bachelor graduation (below master’s level), whose situations on the labour market are more varied. In particular, nearly a third of baccalaureate holders in unskilled positions felt they were overskilled.