From behind the makeshift barricade of tables, desks and chairs that sealed off the amphitheatre of the Sorbonne, a 21-year-old philosophy student crawled out and made his way down to the wall of riot police that kept watch outside one of France’s most prestigious faculties yesterday.

Florian had been up all night leading angry philosophical debates among the 150 students holding the first "occupation" of the Sorbonne since student protesters took over the building in Paris’s Latin Quarter in 1968. On that occasion, it was Vietnam, Algeria and the antiquated rules of their superiors that spurred students to action. These days, it is something far closer to home: unemployment and a hugely controversial government measure to try to combat it.

The prime minister, Dominique de Villepin, wants to force a measure through France’s parliament designed to alleviate unemployment, paradoxically by making it easier to fire workers aged under 26 years. The measure would introduce a new form of work contract, le contrat de première embauche (first employment contract), which gives employers the right to let employees go after two years. The hope is it will spur employers to hire young people safe in the knowledge they are not obliged to retain them.

But the move has provoked a vigorous backlash. More than 400,000 people joined street demonstrations across France earlier this week, and by early yesterday about half of the country’s 88 universities had been shut down by student sit-ins. Mr de Villepin’s popularity has plummeted, and his refusal to back down could dent his ambitions for next year’s presidential elections.

On Wednesday night, the cobbled streets around the Place de la Sorbonne rang out with muffled cries from the university’s main lecture theatre as students, enraged that the government was ignoring their street protests, overran the faculty and barricaded themselves in. By midnight, the street was filling up with students shouting their support from outside and police riot vans. Sheets painted with slogans against the "CPE" were unfurled from the windows.

"Everyone should have the basic human right to work,"said Florian, who would not give his surname. "But there is no hope for young people in France. The contract is a joke, it protects no one. People are desperate. We feel we have the support of the people in the street but that the government just doesn’t care."

Behind the barricades, some were shouting from the platforms of their "occupied" student rooms, others were typing and printing out manifestos from faculty computers. Fears that the riot police would overrun the Sorbonne were calmed when the university’s rector ruled that police would have no access. Instead they stood outside – their only act of cruelty being to prevent supporters bringing baguettes inside at 5am. By 9am, they relented and everyone had had a "good protest breakfast".

For more than a decade, France’s overall unemployment rate has hovered around 10% – one of the highest in western Europe. But it is the punishing level of youth unemployment that sets the country apart. Nearly one in four young French people is out of work, and unemployment among the under-25s has persisted above 20% for a generation.

Although some EU countries in eastern Europe have higher rates, most of these are moving down. France’s rate increased in 2002 and has grown steadily for the past four years. The braindrain is worsening, with desperate young people – including many with good degrees – leaving for other EU countries such as Ireland.

Before lunch yesterday, crowds of anxious, disheartened students had gathered outside the Sorbonne. Many spoke of sending out dozens, sometimes hundreds of CVs and hearing nothing from employers. Others said wearing a Muslim headscarf or not being white considerably reduced job prospects. Those studying political science said they were assured a job for life in France’s generous state sector. "But for most people, being young in France is a hopeless nightmare," said David Dominé-Cohn, doing a masters in history on the Duke of Bretagne. "This new contract means an employer can say goodbye to a young person for no reason."

Despite the protests, senators voted 178-127 in favour of the bill yesterday. But even within the ruling conservative party, dissent was stirring. Hervé de Charette, Jacques Chirac’s former foreign minister, told the daily Le Parisien that the measure should be suspended.

The leader of France’s main student union threatened more protests and demanded that Mr de Villepin withdraw the measure. Bruno Julliard told the television channel i-tele: "The more time passes, the costlier it will become for Villepin to back-pedal when there are hundreds of thousands, even millions, of young people in the streets."

Angry youth

Samir Tris, 22, Tunisian-born, living in Marseilles

I’ve been looking for a job for five years. It’s hell. All my papers are in order, I’m young and hard working if given a chance, but that means nothing here.
Sometimes I’ll get the odd day’s work for Tunisian builders. It’s dangerous, it’s badly paid and cash in hand – 50 euros (£34) a day if you’re lucky. In the end,last year I went to England and picked strawberries, bent double for hours on end for euro 1,300 a month, but it was my only hope of keeping myself once I got back to France to carry on walking the streets looking for work.

Marine Payolle, 20, from Herblay, history of art student at the Sorbonne

All I can do is work for my father’s business transport business in the holidays. There’s no other hope for a job. Because my father has an important job and I’m his daughter, I get my foot in the door. If you’re not related to someone, or well-connected, you can forget it in this country. All my friends send out CVs, but what’s the point? One sent out 50 and heard nothing back. We have to live at home and save up the money our relatives give us for Christmas and birthday to last us the year. Whenever I can practise my English I do, because I hope to leave and go abroad.

Ibrahima Diop, 25, from Senegal, studying management

It’s a nightmare. For three months last year, I printed out and posted off over 200 perfect CVs to companies, listing my experience, details and including a photo. I speak basic English, I’m studying on a good management course, but over 200 applications yielded three interviews. Racism is acute here. When someone sees you’re black, that’s it. I’m now working two days a week in a food distribution plant and studying two days a week. It’s not what I want to be doing but frankly I don’t know if I’ll ever get the job I want.

Angelique Chrisafis Education Guardian.co.uk

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