Whatever point they have reached in their career, descendants of North African immigrants are less likely to be in employment than people not descended from immigrants. Differences in qualifications, experience, family situation and place of residence account for less than half of the differences in the employment rate observed in the two groups. For men, the employment gap is due mainly to a greater difficulty in accessing employment when they are active. For women, it is due to a large extent to their greater inactivity. This difference in behaviour on the part of women is particularly noticeable between ten and twenty years after they finish their studies, especially when they have children.

Once they are in employment, the difficulties that the descendants of North African immigrants encounter appear to diminish, especially in terms of the “quality” of jobs. However, they do appear to be faced with a “glass ceiling”, which makes it more difficult for them to access the highest wages, i.e. over 3,000 euros net per month for a full-time job. When all other characteristics are equal, their chances of reaching these wage levels compared with people with no immigrant heritage are around 15% lower for women and 25% lower for men. For men, this reduced access to the highest levels of compensation is more marked for the oldest employees in the labour market. For lower wage levels, differences in characteristics account for virtually all the wage differences observed between the descendants of North African immigrants and people with no immigrant ancestry.