Global Journal of Human Social Science, E: Economics, Volume 22 Issue 3

Family Capital and Professional Integration of Young Graduates in Cameroon Tchinda Fouodji Eric α & Abessolo Yves André σ Abstract - This paper aims to analyze the effect of family capital on the professional integration of young graduates in Cameroon. From the contextual evolution of Cameroon and theoretical considerations, hypotheses are formulated. They are tested with structural equation models and log linear models applied to the EESI 1 and 2 surveys carried out in 2005 and 2010. It generally emerges that family capital through education contributes to influencing young people's access to segments of the labor market: this is an indirect influence. In addition, due to their socioeconomic position, parents intervene in the professional integration of their children through a preferential choice oriented towards the modern sectors of the labor market (public and formal private sector): this is a direct influence. The influence of the family in the positioning of young people on the labor market increases with the level of education attained increasingly over the period. Policies that reduce the growing influence of parents in the most competitive sectors are needed. Keywords: family capital, professional integration, education, socio-professional status. I ntroduction etween 1962 and 2007, the share of individuals with a higher education level in employment increased from 8.5% to 51% (Brutel, 2015). The employment situation of young people around the world is a tricky question: 74 million young people are currently unemployed, an increase of 3.5 million since 2007. In 2014, the youth unemployment rate was already high 12% in developing countries, more than three times the adult unemployment rate. In addition, it is said that in the next five years, 200 million people are expected to enter the labor market in southern countries. In Africa particularly, the youth population is growing while access to decent jobs continues to be problematic. Cameroon, like most other countries in the world, is no exception to this situation. Indeed, the unemployment rate in the broader sense was 5.7% in 2010. It should be noted that these figures mask the reality of the labor market in Cameroon, which is more dominated by urban unemployment among young people and women, the sector informality and the phenomenon of underemployment. In fact, the unemployment rate among young people (in the age group ranging from 15 to 34 years) in the broader sense in urban areas was 15.5% in 2010. unchanged between 2005 and 2010, and is around 90.5%. 92% of young people (15-34 years old) are in the informal sector. It should also be noted that overall underemployment extends over 70.6% of active workers, i.e. 6.3 million employed workers, with a relative drop of 5.2 points compared to 2005. Moreover, young people remain the age group most affected by the phenomenon. In 2010, this rate was 75.8% for the 15-24 age group and 70.6% for those aged 15-34. The evolution of the structure of employment in Cameroon illustrates the need for a balance between the training of individuals on the one hand, and the creation of qualified jobs on the other hand in order to absorb this more graduated. It seems that the diploma obtained is no longer the key to obtaining neither a stable job, nor even less the keychain of empowerment. As a result, the fast student job seeker should, in addition to his academic achievements, have other extra-academic skills to optimize his chances of professional integration. These additional resources will increase their competitiveness on the labor market, their feeling of employability and therefore their possibilities of professional integration. This last expression is the fact for an unemployed individual to access a job. Professional integration has been used as a dependent variable in several theoretical models (Forrier et al. 2018). These models for the most part have studied this concept at the macro level in order to promote employability in a nation and at the organizational level (See B., 2008). However, several authors have taken the initiative to understand at the individual level the factors that determine the level of professional integration of young people. To this end, they arrange these factors into three: contextual factors (Nauta, et al, 2009), personal characteristics (Pool, et al, 2014), or both (Clarke, 2017). According to Okay – Somerville and Scholarios (2017), these resources can extend and cover the dimensions: educational, social, cultural and psychosocial. Referring to these multidimensional resources that influence the professional integration of young people, Solon (2017) invokes intergenerational mobility by situating it in the register of family capital. Its quality is an asset for young graduates looking for a job. Intergenerational mobility refers to the association of socioeconomic status between two generations (Solon, 2017). Also called intergenerational transmission, it represents the impact of the position of B © 2022 Global Journals Volume XXII Issue III Version I 1 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 E Author α : Doctoral Student at the Faculty of Economics and Management of the University of Maroua, Cameroon. e-mail: ericpassie@gmail.com Author σ : Full Professor of Economics, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Management.