‪Carrières de licencié.e.s. ‪. Revenir sur le passé pour saisir les destins des chômeurs de Moulinex

?What happened to the 3 000 Moulinex Normandy five plants employees that were dismissed in September 2001 To answer this question, we use the results of both a survey by questionnaires applied to 830 former employees during the autumn of 2003 and of in-depth interviews. The statistical treatment shows that the structure of the workforce at Moulinex, highly segmented by gender, age and qualification, can be found again in subsequent trajectories on the labor market. The confrontation between the ex-employees? professional past and their situations two years after the termination of employment brings to the foreground three typical models of redundant employees? careers: if unqualified women find it hard to bounce back, graduated technicians do not have difficulty finding another job in another firm and go on with their careers. This large-scale redundancy plan engendered massive, local unemployment, thus showing the strong influence of geographical location and, to a lesser extent, of professional training. The role played by the diploma seems ambiguous: if it helps the graduates to escape unemployment because they manage to leave the company before the social plan takes place or because they are more easily eligible for an age measure, it is obviously a less critical resource for those who are unemployed.?