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Equal participation in paid employment is regarded as a basic entitlement within human rights discourse. Recent organizational studies highlight how the workplace can operate as a socially divided space for queer (or non-heterosexual) workers, depicting the workplace as a problematic site of sexuality-based discrimination and abuse. The aim of this paper is to locate the experiences of young queer workers as newcomers to the Australian labour market and to shed light on how young queer people negotiate sexually exclusive and inclusive workspaces. The findings from this qualitative study were developed from a series of interviews with 34 young people (18-26 years old) who primarily identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or queer (LGBQ) and were employed in a diverse range of industries. Based on their stories, this paper will argue that workplaces can function as both sexually exclusive and inclusive spaces. Within exclusive spaces, young people experienced a series of symbolically and materially violent practices that reinforced the boundaries of sexual normalcy in the workplace. Within inclusive spaces, young people gave weight to everyday "micro-practices" of inclusion over wider workplace policy and procedures. Findings from this research hold significant implications for informing organizational change. (Contains 1 table and 3 notes.)

This paper presents evidence from the biographies of samples totaling 1,215 young adults in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, who all reached age 16 between 1986 and 1992, and whose subsequent life histories coincided with their countries' transitions from communism. The evidence is used to examine whether new classes are being created in the new market economies and, if so, where the new divisions lie. Economic classes are defined as aggregates with typical and distinctive labour market and work situations. The evidence points to the creation of two such groups, a middle class and a lower class. Corresponding social differences in family and leisure careers are identified. The paper points out that these emergent class formations are different from those in the West, and gives reasons why they are less likely to become politically efficacious than were classes in the West's more mature market economies during the twentieth century. (Contains 12 tables.)

This paper rejects the cases made in recent volumes of this journal for incorporating political economy into youth studies. A brief review of young people's transitions from education into employment in the UK during and following the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns shows how youth transitions research engages routinely with changes and continuities in politics, state policies, the economy and labour markets. It is argued that the main weaknesses in current transitions research arise from our lack of an up-to-date class scheme within which to locate subjects' childhood origins and adult destinations. However, the paper illustrates how young researchers occupy a privileged position from which to identify emerging, consolidating and declining social classes. The conclusion is that youth studies must necessarily foreground young people, that it must engage with the outcomes of political and economic processes but has no need to 'dig deeper' into political economy for alleged underlying root causes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most advanced countries, young people are now expected to remain in education until the age of 18 and, in a context of poor opportunities for those who leave at an early stage, there are concerns about those who are being left behind. In this paper we use comparable survey data to focus on the destinations of young people in two contrasting societies, England and Wales and Japan. We compare the destinations of 19/20-year-olds in the two countries, with a strong focus on those who leave education at an early stage, and go on to explore the extent to which young people's socio-economic backgrounds and their orientations to education explain their post-school experiences. We argue that, in both societies, those who enter the labour market before the age of 20 face severe difficulties irrespective of their social background. (Contains 9 tables and 6 notes.)

This article examines different forms of voluntary risk-taking behaviour amongst young people living and learning in a risk society. It draws on research conducted with a Scottish dance-education company and a synthesis of Elisian, Bakhtinian and Bourdieusian theories. It argues that risk-taking may be particularly alluring in "societies of caution" in which youth experience significant levels of control and surveillance in schools and other heavily supervised contexts, and may also offer young people a means of solving some of the challenges presented by the risk society. However, access to relatively safe and supervised activities like (e.g. bungee jumping) is limited by the possession of various capital resources. Spontaneous and unregulated acts (e.g. trolley surfing) require far fewer capital resources. The study shows that successfully performing risks can assist young people to secure positions of belonging and status within desirable peer groups and to develop culturally venerated identities. Risk is often synonymous with hegemonic masculinity and, for young men specifically, voluntary risk-taking may be function as a strategy for avoiding culturally denigrated categories like "wimp" and "sissy". Thus, the paper is able to demonstrate the commonality of a range of activities, from physical risks to "identity risks". (Contains 2 notes.)

This paper uses data drawn from the European Union Labour Force Survey 2000 Ad Hoc Module on School to Work Transitions to explore the influence of gender and social background (measured in terms of parental education) on young people's educational and early labour market outcomes across 12 European countries. Our results show that social background is strongly related to the level of education achieved while gender is found to have a stronger effect on the field of study selected. Countries vary in the extent to which gender and social background affect young people's outcomes. Gender differentiation in labour market outcomes reflects the nature of the welfare regime, being more pronounced in familial and conservative systems. Social inequality in educational attainment and early labour market outcomes are less marked in Finland and Sweden, reflecting the combination of less differentiated educational systems, mass higher education and social-democratic welfare regimes. In contrast, social inequality is more marked in the Eastern European countries, due partly to their highly differentiated educational systems but more notably to rapid changes taking place in post-communist systems. (Contains 2 tables, 7 figures and 5 notes.)

Young people's experience of education in a "risk society" is characterised by a terrain of "initiative overload" which appears to make the routes through which young people are seeking to plot a path evermore perilous. This article is concerned with the impact of creative learning on young people, as represented by the UK Government's initiative Creative Partnerships in Durham Sunderland. The article considers the degree to which creative learning can help young people prepare for the realities of an uncertain future. It is argued that if young people are to be as reflexive as both the economy and transitions demand, then the market-oriented system of education deployed in England needs to be far more reflexive and biographically oriented than is currently the case, and that creative learning could play a key role in this process.

Students in Australia are entering the sex industry as a pragmatic response to increasing education costs and a reduction in government income support. This paper examines the lived experiences of a group of 40 young women, all post-secondary education students, working in the Melbourne sex industry. Their experiences suggest that while the Australian Government continues to implement "user pays" reforms to the education sector, sex work will feature more dominantly as a "normal" form of employment for students seeking to obtain a higher education. This does not suggest, however, that student poverty leads to criminality, but rather that there is a growing rift between what is considered legal "mainstream" employment and what is considered acceptable "legitimate" employment by young people themselves. This "tension" emerges in the choices and decisions of the young people in this research: the fragmented, multiple identities they assume as they take on many different roles and responsibilities, exercise selective and strategic disclosure practices, are negatively positioned by others, and are active in making choices and decisions to reach their goals and imagined futures.

This paper examines the relationship between young individuals that are Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEETs) and regional resilience across the Mediterranean European Union South. It attempts a significant contribution to the literature since academic readings on youth studies have partly overlooked potential interlinkages with regional resilience, while regional studies have neglected to assess the resilience of the young cohorts of the labour force. The paper builds on a geographical political economy approach and employs a mixed-research method, calculating regional resistance and recovery indices and drawing upon informed expert interviews. It scrutinises labour market resilience in terms of youth employment and NEETs against the 2007/08 crisis and documents which regions have been (less) resistant to youth unemployment and inactivity. Thereupon, it locates four factors of low resilience in regional youth labour markets, namely structural deficiencies, path-dependence, labour market segmentation and informal practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Active labour market policies for young people, backed by the EU Youth Guarantee programme, led governments to trying new measures, amongst them internships for graduates of different education levels. This youth, despite being better prepared than early school leavers, still face problems during their professional insertion processes. Faulty progressions can become 'lost in transition' situations (Brinton [2010]. Lost in Transition: Youth, Work, and Instability in Postindustrial Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.). This paper analyzes the effects in terms of employment outcomes of a programme with two types of internships: in private firms and in public administration offices. A counterfactual analysis is carried out by matching intern groups of either type with a control group formed from candidates who ended up without an internship. The results from a first analysis with registered data were enhanced by implementing a second analysis based upon survey data, which permitted the inclusion of family legacy variables in a medium-term analysis. Estimated effects are positive and significant for participants in firms' internships, and negative and significant for interns who worked in public organisations. Additionally, the survey uncovers that work contracts offered by firms after the programme play a positive role. The results should be very useful for decision making in terms of active measures addressing these issues for young people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper responds to the call for more research on the 'missing middle' by reporting the findings of a small-scale qualitative longitudinal study in the North of England exploring the labour market transitions of young people completing compulsory schooling with mid-level qualifications and seeking employment. It found that participants desired training which aligned with their skills, interests and future work intentions. Participants were drawn to seek apprenticeships because they offered 'earning and learning' in a real-life work environment. However, for the vast majority, apprenticeships were not available, so they turned to college to articulate their choices and gain work-related training. Qualifications were gained in order to gain leverage in the job market and help them achieve 'getting on' work. However, often a period of 'pinballing' between their ambitions and the reality of the labour market ensued due to the lack of desirable quality work available. The majority of participants were still resisting 'going nowhere' work and making efforts to achieve 'getting on' work when interviewed, however, some had stopped making the effort and resigned themselves to on-going poor quality work. The process of biographicity was, for them, a reconciliation with on-going low-quality work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical youth studies understands contemporary youth transitions as an interplay between long term changes in labour markets and state approaches to welfare and the regulatory presence of societal norms about the 'right kind' of transitions and the 'right kind' of young adult citizens. This work is intersectional, with emphasis given to class, gender and race and ethnicity. However, in comparison less focus is given to disability, even though it shapes youth transition possibilities. This paper highlights the problems created by paying insufficient attention to disability, alongside making the case that there are conceptual tools useful to critical youth studies within disability studies. (1) Disability studies approaches to inequality help make the case that material inequalities are still an important factor in young people's lives. (2) A focus on disability supports arguments that as forms of state support dwindle, family is increasingly significant – and problematic – as a resource in youth transitions. (3) Critical disability studies can help explore the significance of normative embodied markers of transitions for young people making their way towards adulthood. (4) Collaboration can encourage deeper recognition of the relational quality of transitional processes and move away from a linear understanding of time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young vocational graduates face many expectations related to the norms of worker-citizenship when entering the labour market. Due to contemporary uncertainties and the new realities of adulthood, meeting these expectations may not be easy. These expectations might also conflict with young adults' desires. This paper examines how vocational education graduates position themselves in the labour market and what kind of worker-citizenship they produce in their working-life stories. The study is based on 32 individual interviews with 18- to 25-year-old vocational graduates with different positions in the Finnish labour market. The findings support earlier research on the importance of assuming the position of worker-citizen for these graduates. In new adulthood, they aim but are also forced to shape their worker-citizenship when, for some, vocational qualification has not redeemed its promises. Based on empirical findings, the article argues that ideals maintained in vocational education may need to be shaped within the unpredictable realities of new adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the UK, transition to university has become regarded as the 'normative' next step for young people following completion of their post-16 education. This paper examines the views of 23 young people who, despite being suitably qualified to progress to university, were anticipating alternative pathways and options. The paper illuminates the centrality of young people's 'learning identities' in their decisions and the role of wider social contexts in structuring their opportunities to embark on higher education. Their 'learning identities' informed their views on the value of higher education and other options in securing future employment. The implications of these findings are highly significant in the context of congested and competitive UK labour markets in which obtaining a degree has become, in very many contexts, the bare minimum for securing employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The conventional view since the early 2000s has been that participation in higher education (HE) is a risky pathway for disadvantaged young people in England; the social risk of entering an alien environment combines with the financial risk of rising costs and questionable long-term returns. This riskiness has been constructed as a major barrier to participation. However, national administrative data cast doubt on whether this analysis still holds true. Despite significant rises in tuition fees, the proportion of disadvantaged young people entering HE has continued to rise, with advantaged groups seemingly being more price-sensitive. Data from recent qualitative studies has also suggested that young people are now less attuned to risks. This paper considers whether circumstances in wider society have shifted perceptions of risk. The volatility resulting from the global financial crisis appears to have repositioned HE as a less risky option than early entry to the labour market, especially with more jobs becoming 'graduate', while the social risk has declined as HE has diversified. The paper draws on theoretical perspectives from Beck, Boudon, Simon and Kahneman to argue that many disadvantaged young people now view HE as a form of 'insurance' against an uncertain future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper interrogates claims that millennial youth are being jilted by gilded baby boomers. The interrogation is by comparing the education and early experiences in labour and housing markets, then (when possible) the subsequent lives, of three post-1945 British cohorts: the immediate post-war cohort who completed education between 1945 and 1960, their children who passed through the same youth life stage in the late-1970s and 1980s, and finally the post-war cohort's grandchildren, the millennials who have completed their education since the late-2000s. The analysis searches for gilded and jilted sections within each of these cohorts by comparing their lives with those of their parents. It shows that no cohort has been uniformly gilded or jilted, and that the label (jilted or gilded) which appeared most appropriate when a cohort was making its education to work, and family and housing transitions, has often looked inappropriate by the latter part of their lives. The paper argues that it is too early to apply gilded or jilted labels to any sections of millennial youth, and that current appearances that they are victims of generational inequity are due to a long-term failure to match increased investments in human capital within families and in education with investments in the economy and housing that would enable the millennials to convert their human capital into commensurate jobs and accommodation suitable for new family household formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Youth in Egypt hold rising aspirations for their adult lives, yet face an increasingly uncertain and protracted transition from school to work and thus into adulthood. This paper investigates how labor market insertion has been evolving over time in Egypt and how the nature of youth transitions relates to gender and social class. The study examines 19,925 respondents from the 2012 wave of the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey. We demonstrate that recent youth cohorts face poorer chances of transitioning into a good job than previous cohorts, despite large increases in educational attainment. Social class is playing an increasing role in determining the success of the transition from school to work in Egypt. Whether youth successfully make transitions to formal jobs, embark on such transitions and fail, or pursue more traditional careers in informal employment or family businesses or farms depends on a complex and changing interaction between their own educational attainment and the resources of their families. In light of these findings, we discuss the policies that can help facilitate more successful transitions for struggling youth in Egypt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people’s transition from education into the labour market are diverse: sometimes direct from school to work or inactivity, sometimes characterised by stop-starts and combinations of different activities. This paper explores the association between transition pathways of Australian youth and their outcomes, in terms of earnings, perceptions of employment opportunities and debt. It builds on analysis by Fry and Boulton [2013.Prevalence of Transition Pathways in Australia. Canberra: Productivity Commission Staff Working Paper] who identified five pathways most typically taken by 15–24 year old Australians over a 10 year period, including quasi linear transitions from education to work with and without study, combinations of work and study, multiple churning between labour market statuses, and transitions into prolonged periods of inactivity. The present study adds four more years of panel data that have since become available, and compares the labour market outcomes of the different pathways at age 29–38. Earnings and employment perception converged over time, but debt did not. Socio-demographics were most strongly associated with outcomes, but earnings were also greater for churners and for young people in extended education increasingly combined with work. Transitions that combined learning and work seemingly strategically or ‘flexibly’ appeared most rewarding in the medium term, although neither compensated for socio-economic difference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores young women's expectations on future work-family reconciliation in Finland, a Nordic country well-known for the promotion of gender equality. Utilising Sen's capabilities approach, we content-analysed thirty individual interviews to identify differences in women's expectations and their perceived capabilities in future work and care. The results showed that irrespective of their labour market status and educational attainment, the women's expectations were contradictory, reflecting a current Finnish gender culture that embraces both the ideal of shared parenthood and the primacy of maternal care. Between-group differences were also found. The employed women perceived themselves as having the capability to balance work, family and, personal time in the future. The women who were studying and had higher education- and career-related expectations perceived themselves as capable of combating gender inequality in their future working lives. In contrast, the unemployed women perceived their capabilities in both their future work and care as limited, thereby constraining their agency to realise their choices in work-family reconciliation and family decision-making. These findings indicate that Finnish women's expectations on future work-family reconciliation are shaped by institutional, societal and individual socioeconomic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term ‘Generation Rent’ denotes young people who are increasingly living in the private rented sector for longer periods of their lives because they are unable to access homeownership or social housing. Drawing on qualitative data from two studies with young people and key-actors, this paper considers the phenomenon of ‘Generation Rent’ from the perspective of youth transitions and the concept of ‘home’. These frameworks posit that young people leaving the parental home traverse housing and labour markets until they reach a point of ‘settling down’. However, our data indicate that many young people face difficulties in this ‘settling’ process as they have to contend with insecure housing, unstable employment and welfare cuts which often force them to be flexible and mobile. This leaves many feeling frustrated as they struggle to remain fixed in place in order to ‘settle down’ and benefit from the positive qualities of home. Taking a Scottish focus, this paper further highlights the geographical dimension to these challenges and argues that those living in expensive and/or rural areas may find it particularly difficult to settle down. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International mobility has become a significant part of the life experiences of a growing number of Polish youths since the enlargement of the EU in 2004, influencing young people's transitions from education to work or transitions across different labour markets. The key aim of this paper is to explore socio-occupational sequences of young people considering spatial and temporal dynamism of the process of mobility. Focusing on the intersection between youth and migration studies, we aim to answer the following research questions: (1) What are the socio-occupational sequences of young people 'on the move'? (2) How mobility capacities and imperatives determine the flow of sequences and (3) How mobility patterns collocate with sequences' shapes? Based on Social Sequence Analysis, we have distinguished four types of 'mobile sequences' of young adults: (1) the 'upward sequence' when spatial mobility accelerates social mobility; (2) the 'yo-yo sequence', where transnational mobility causes 'return social mobility'; (3) the 'zigzag sequence', involving up-and-down patterns in social mobility; (4) the 'flat sequence', where spatial mobility has no impact on the objective dimension of socio-occupational sequences, but mobility strongly influences human capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Tai-Lao' is a Chinese term which literally means low-skilled migrant workers from the lower class in Taiwan. In current Taiwanese society, this phrase is used to criticise those young Taiwanese who encounter difficulties in the competition for white-collar jobs in Taiwan and travel to Australia for a working holiday. Based on 31 in-depth interviews with Taiwanese working holidaymakers conducted in Taiwan, this paper argues that, surprisingly, a working holiday is regarded as downward mobility in Taiwan although it is a type of temporary migration to the West. Therefore, 'Tai-Lao' is a stigma that works as a classed form of symbolic violence in Taiwanese society. This violence, which stems from neoliberal ideology, further reproduces this stigma through middle-class expectations of global perspectives in Taiwan. In order to avoid being labelled as 'Tai-Lao', Taiwanese working holidaymakers try to redefine the Tai-Lao identity from a Western perspective. However, it is still difficult to reduce this stigma due to their lack of personal achievements in the Taiwanese labour market. Only those returnees who successfully commodify their own Western experience and increase their personal market value are able to destigmatise themselves and regard 'being Tai-Lao' as a process of being successful within Taiwan's neoliberal system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to better understand the relationship between young people's aspirations towards education and jobs, and the context in which they are formed, especially to understand better the role of disadvantaged places in shaping young people's aspirations. Policy makers maintain that disadvantaged areas are associated with low aspirations and there is support for this position from academic work on neighbourhood effects and local labour markets, but evidence is slim. Using a two-stage survey of young people in disadvantaged settings in three British cities, the paper provides new data on the nature of young peoples’ aspirations, how they change during the teenage years, and how they relate to the places where they are growing up. The findings are that aspirations are very high and, overall, they do not appear to be depressed in relation to the jobs available in the labour market either by the neighbourhood context or by young people's perceptions of local labour markets. However, there are significant differences between the pattern of aspirations and how they change over time in the three locations. The paper then challenges assumptions in policy and in the literature that disadvantaged places equal low aspirations and suggests that understanding how aspirations are formed requires needs a nuanced approach to the nexus of class, ethnicity and institutional influences within local areas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is based on findings from a longitudinal study of 20 young people who have spent significant periods of time categorised as NEET (not in education, employment or training). Drawing on 3 years of ethnographic research conducted across two local authorities in the north of England, it focuses on the lived experience of a set of young people as they move between various sites of exclusion and participation in the labour market. Central to the paper are the experiences of three individuals and their attempts to begin work in the retail, care and catering industries. The paper illustrates a range of tensions between the aspirations of young people and the opportunities open to them. It provides a critical insight into some of the conditions which characterise work on the fringes of the labour market and the interplay between these and the attitudes, values and dispositions of the young people taking part in the research. The paper's findings challenge popular discourses about young people on the margins of participation and pose questions about the articulation between education, work and training for those seeking to enter the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The debate on territorial cohesion and spatial inequality recognises the role and influence different scales have on individuals' opportunities with extended effects especially for young people's life chances. In particular, a regional perspective into territorial disparities of socio-economic conditions and welfare in Europe provides a more fine-grained view on the existence of territorially diverging income and labour market conditions for youth that a national level analysis is not able to grasp. This paper focus on regional differences in school to work outcomes of young people using macro-panel data covering the period from 2005 until 2016. We use a plurality of indicators to study to what extent school to work transitions are better studied at regional level and to characterise those transitions in a more comprehensive way. Our findings demonstrate that there are huge differences both in the level and in the dispersion of young people's school to work outcomes across European territories. This tells us that the allegedly assumed national homogeneity of transition systems can definitely not be taken for granted. Moreover, we show that the Great Recession had strong but differentiated impacts at regional level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A higher education degree has been regarded as an investment that helps young people access good jobs. However, it is increasingly difficult for young graduates to enter the labour market and, more importantly, to access high quality jobs. This paper examines determinants of the wages of young bachelor and master graduates engaged in different contractual arrangements. Linked employer-employee data, namely Quadros de Pessoal (2007 and 2011), were used to compare the impact of standard and non-standard jobs on the wages of post-Bologna graduates who entered the labour market during the economic recession in Portugal. Most graduates start by getting a full-time job, be it stable or flexible. Empirical evidence shows wage differentials linked to the type of contractual arrangement, although the impact in 2007 is not the same in 2011. The contracts that combine flexibility with part-time work have been the most penalised in recent times. The transition of bachelors to the labour market is expected to be more precarious; however, according to data for 2011, master graduates appear to be protected against low quality jobs in Portugal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper reports on a mixed methods study that sought to analyse determinants of youth labour market and educational disengagement in Peru. It begins by questioning the widespread focus on NEET – youth not in employment, education or training – as a measure of youth vulnerability in countries with extensive informal labour markets where labour precarity can be as problematic as unemployment for young people's futures. A broader category of 'urban vulnerable' youth, including both NEET and precarious workers, is proposed and used as the basis for analysing the factors that influence young people's trajectories. Key factors and shocks in youth trajectories are identified through qualitative life histories, and are tested using cross-section and panel survey data. Findings from the study have implications for the analysis of youth labour market vulnerability in the Global South, as well as for the policies that seek to address this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The precarity of young people's transitions to work has been a longstanding focus in youth studies. As Furlong and others have demonstrated, processes of social, political and economic restructuring have led to a pronounced instability for young people entering the labour market. While the notion of labour market precarity has gained attention, the 'contamination' of precarity into other spheres of life such as leisure has been less developed. This article seeks to extend these debates through interrogation of the concept of 'leisure precarity'. Drawing on a qualitative study of youth leisure in Glasgow, it argues that temporal anxieties have reframed young people's experiences and understandings of leisure such that young people have come to fear 'empty' or unproductive time. The pressures of juggling work and study, or looking for work, meant that most participants in our research had limited time free for leisure, and temporal rhythms became fragmented between past, present and future. The paper argues that these multiple and contradictory leisure dispositions reveal new forms of individualisation and uncertainty, as well as traditional patterns of inequality, thereby bringing youth transitions into dialogue with the study of precarity in the twenty-first century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is broad agreement that precarious work is a growing problem, and that it is highly prevalent among young employees. The financial crisis in 2008 has reinforced the need for knowledge about how precarious work affects young employees. This paper explores how the concept of precarious work may apply differentially to different groups of young people at work and whether this challenges the term 'transition', which until now has been one of the core elements within contemporary youth research. We examine discursive representations of precarious work, vulnerability and risks among young Danish employees aged 18-24 in the healthcare sector, the metal industry and retail trade captured in 46 interviews involving 74 participants. Results are discussed taking into consideration the Nordic welfare model with an active labour marked policy. We conclude that precarious work is not, in fact, simply a characteristic of young employees' work as such, but rather it is related to their position in the labour market and the type of jobs in which they are employed. While some are in transition, others are at risk of being trapped in precarious and risky working conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the current youth transition system in Poland focusing on the role of industry partnerships with vocational upper secondary schools. On the example of the aviation cluster in the south-eastern Poland, this paper assesses the strong industry-led partnership established in 2007 with local schools and authorities in delivery of aviation-specific programmes, and its impact of local youth transitions to labour market. In contrast to Poland's national trend towards weak cooperation between industry and the vocational education sector, three major dynamics regarding the aviation cluster's influence on vocational education are observable. The region benefits from: strong leadership from local industry in influencing the supply of particular skills by local vocational education and training (VET) schools and universities; a high level of willingness of local government authorities at the mayor's and municipality's offices to support the aviation cluster's influence on VET; and a free-market model of student choice influencing the practice of local VET schools and training centres. Such cooperation is valuable for businesses and local institutes of education. However, these processes affect the equal chances of successful school-to-work transitions for graduates stratified in different educational pathways, and successful transitions are still constrained by the structure of Poland's system, which is increasingly assuming ‘education logic’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the issue of socio-demographic attributes of NEET status (dropping out of employment, education or training for young people between 15 and 24 years old) in Russia, and presents an investigation of the impact of education on falling into NEET for the first time. Whilst existing studies on Russian NEETs provide a general descriptive insight into NEET status, little is known about the role of education in NEET-types formation. The empirical analysis was based on the micro-data of the Russian Labour Force Survey (LFS) by the Federal State Statistics Service for 1995–2017, and the Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey Higher School of Economics (RLMS-HSE) for 2000–2017. Gender-specific multinomial logit analyses and dynamic multinomial logit panel regressions empirically support the heterogeneous nature of Russian NEETs confirming the human capital framework. They show that higher education does not provide a universal safety net from NEET status in Russia. While risks of NEET-inactivity are mainly concentrated among those who have primary or vocational education, NEET-unemployment in Russia is associated with higher education. Results contribute to the ongoing discussion about the changing rates of return for higher education and the saturation of the Russian labour market with university graduates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the limited relevance of traditional labour market indicators for youth unemployment, researchers and policy-makers focus on an indicator known as not in employment, education or training (‘NEET’). The underlying assumption is that NEET indicates young people with a high risk of social exclusion. For political solutions, it is necessary to consider the heterogeneity of the NEET group. This paper examines the socio-structural attributes that characterise NEET youth in Austria, the main reasons for the NEET situation and whether NEET status, once assigned to an individual, is permanent or temporary. Latent cluster analyses identify seven subgroups of NEET youth, all of which face different challenges. The data source used is the Austrian Labour Force Survey (micro census) from the years 2008–2010, and young people between 16 and 24 years old are analysed. A panel data-set is created to analyse NEET permanence. Drawing on the identified reasons for a permanent NEET situation, this paper argues for more job and training opportunities that fit the needs of young people, especially those with illnesses. Finally, this study asks whether the definition of NEET should be adapted to exclude young mothers with care responsibilities who are not actively looking for a job. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyze the transition from vocational education to a first significant job for Spanish young people. The data comes from the Survey on Education and Labor Market Transitions, targeting various collectives who finished their non-university studies. Discrete duration models are estimated to identify the determinants of the time-to-first significant job. The main results show that, contrary to what is expected, there are no significant differences for students graduating in intermediate or in advanced vocational training. Nonetheless, vocational education is characterized by a high specialization by gender, which is translated into differences in the transition to employment. Furthermore, previous professional experience in precarious jobs does not improve access to quality employment, whereas internships performed within studies, when evaluated by the young as satisfactory, have a positive impact. Other subjective aspects, such as a high value assigned to work or family or a priority focused on achieving a stable job lead to a smoother school-to-work transition. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

To what extent and in what ways are 'the reforms', and specifically the tougher labour market conditions and the creation of housing markets, responsible for the decline in marriage and fertility rates in the former Soviet Union? These questions are examined using evidence from surveys conducted during 1999 among a total of 1300 25-26 year olds in Moscow, Vladikavkaz and Dneipropetrovsk, and from four focus group sessions with a total of 25 young university graduates in Moscow and Dneipropetrovsk in 2002. It is shown, first, that the reforms have not made it more difficult for young couples to obtain their own places; second, that an inability to obtain their own places did not under communism, and still does not, lead to delays in marriage and parenthood; third, that the young people who are currently delaying marriage and parenthood are not those who are experiencing the greatest difficulties in the labour market; and fourth, that although the lifestyle costs of parenthood have become substantial, these costs will increase rather than diminish if and when the economies recover. The paper concludes that it is young adults' lifestyle options and choices--new options and choices in some cases--rather than economic and housing conditions per se , that are responsible for the fall in marriage and fertility rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores perceptions regarding family and paid employment expressed by university students in Chile, based on the analysis of quantitative data from the Maule region (southern Chile). We argue that the increasing unpredictability of labor markets has eroded the role paid employment historically has had as the lynchpin of individual’s – particularly men’s – life project, altering the expectations about both work and family life. Likewise, changes in gender roles have shaped youngsters’ ideals about family life. This seems to be the case especially for women, who strongly affirm their economic independence and personal projects, departing from traditional family views. We conclude that young people are demanding a new balance between life (understood mainly as personal and family time) and work. There is also a strong affirmation of the individual project, including a demand for greater gender equality. Although still at the level of projected visions of the future, these findings signal changes in the way the relation work–family is traditionally organized, bringing new challenges for public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper aims to contribute to the existing studies on the young women’s transition to adulthood in the case of Turkish women’s exclusion from the labour market. The issue is discussed largely within the boundaries of traditional gender restrictions that keep women out of employment. Herein, we argue that the gender-based control of young women, perceived as the reason for their exclusion from the labour market, may be used by disadvantaged women as a way of avoiding difficult and unfavourable employment situations. Similarly, the gender roles imposed on men could also not be fulfilled due to the same restrictive labour market conditions. Furthermore, we suggest that the poverty simultaneously strengthens and erodes the very base of the traditional gender structure for both young women and young men, while forcing the young women out of employment and the young men to the unstable working conditions. This argument is based on a study conducted in Altındağ, Ankara with a sample of 279 females and 340 males aged between 15 and 24. A mixed methodology, comprising a survey questionnaire followed by 60 in-depth interviews and 4 focus group discussions, was employed for this study. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this paper is to explore the links between the experiences of parents and youth within racialized immigrant families to gain a better appreciation of intergenerational dynamics, drawing on interviews and preinterview surveys with 47 immigrant youth and their parents. Our thematic analysis of data explores the diversity of families' immigration experiences, labor market challenges for parents, shared family discourses of sacrifice and opportunity, and differences in youth responses to the high expectations of parents. We conclude that the life course transitions experienced by parents have important consequences for their children; immigrant youth feel a strong sense of intergenerational obligation, and this obligation is problematic for a significant minority of youth. Our qualitative findings thus temper the optimistic picture of these youth presented in large-scale studies of their aspirations and attainment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on a recent ethnographic study of contemporary hospital volunteering in the Czech Republic, this paper explores the changing ideologies underpinning youth volunteering in the Czech context and shows how they may be linked to broader socio-economic and political transformations that have taken place in Czech society following the collapse of state socialism in 1989. Volunteering discourses in the contemporary period promote processes of individualisation, and the experiences of young volunteers highlight volunteering as an activity enabling the construction of distinctive personal identities and biographies. The article examines the extent to which these developments can be illuminated by the theory of reflexive modernisation. It is argued that this thesis can conceptually elucidate the emphasis on reflexivity in the creation of young people's contemporary volunteer identities. At the same time, however, young volunteers' reflexive practices also create the ground for the reformulation of certain well-established health hierarchies and gender inequalities linked to the socialist era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic crisis that erupted in 2008 has had particularly adverse effects on the youth labour market outcomes in the European Union Mediterranean economies. So far little evidence is available on the reaction of the young to the adverse conditions their household members faced due to the crisis. Youths could have decided to prolong or stay in education instead of participating on the labour market (substitution effect) or they could have decided to increase their participation (income effect). By using the EU Labour Force Survey data, we explore the probability of young adults changing their labour market status from (i) inactivity to employment, (ii) inactivity to unemployment, (iii) employment to education, and (iv) unemployment to education in response to labour market outcome changes in their households: (i) both parents losing the job; (ii) one of the parents losing the job, (iii) both parents becoming inactive, (iv) one of the parents becoming inactive, and (v) both parents remaining unemployed. Estimated probit models include seven EU Mediterranean countries during the 2006-2015 period. Results support both income and substitution effect, without clear identification of the dominance of one effect over the other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a Marxist political economy (MPE) of youth to explain the material conditions of young people in developed economies. Central concepts of capitalist accumulation, labour-power and value are utilised to historicise and situate young people in relation to wage labour under capitalism. The article conceptualises how contradictory processes of capitalist accumulation impact young people through an analysis of the actions of private capital, labour and the state. The theoretical approach is supported with UK data which illustrates how young people have experienced challenges in education, labour market transitions, and work and employment conditions. The article reveals how a combination of structural economic change, state regulation and low-road employer business strategies which generate poor quality work have all contributed to the decline in the value of youth labour-power in the UK. The article also provides methodological insights for using the MPE approach in future youth studies research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses patterns of persistence in both vertical and horizontal educational mismatch in the early career of university graduates in Spain, with particular emphasis on the mediating role of job mobility. We explore whether educational mismatch is a stepping stone towards better-matched positions or whether graduates get trapped in mismatched jobs. Our results show that job mobility partially corrects educational mismatch (supporting the stepping stone hypothesis), but there is still a strong persistence in educational mismatches four years after graduation (the trap hypothesis). Vertical mismatch is, overall, less persistent than horizontal mismatch, in part because some horizontally mismatched graduates lack incentives to make corrective movements across employers because of compensating job features that keep them in their first jobs. Job rotation and poor accumulation of employment experience challenge the correcting role of job mobility in educational mismatch risk. These results reflect relevant features of the Spanish labour market: segmentation, intensive job turnover and high youth unemployment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores young Finns' transition pathways into education and work over a 9-year period (from the age of 18 to 26), with a special focus on difficulties with labour market attachment. The data were derived from national registers comprising all men (29,383) and women (27,784) born in 1987. Their labour market attachment was investigated using trajectory analysis with four variables (employment, education, unemployment, social security allowances) from 2005 to 2013. We identified 10 trajectory groups, of which 7 in men and 8 in women were categorised as 'mainstream paths', reflecting relatively smooth transitions. The other trajectory groups were considered to assume 'straying paths': 11% of both men and women followed these paths. The size and nature of these paths differed between men and women: it seems that men more often have serious difficulties with labour market attachment than women do. Overall, the results of the multiple variable trajectory analyses suggest that cross-sectional inspections of the Finnish register data overestimate the proportion of NEETs, particularly among men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the reversal of gender differences in educational attainment, women continue to be underrepresented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) occupations. Yet comparative studies indicate that the male advantage in STEM fields varies across countries. To understand how these country variations come about, this study analyzes the gender gap in adolescents' STEM expectations. While previous research mainly focused on the role of the cultural environment and the education system, this study contributes to the literature by investigating the opportunity structures of the labor market. We study how employment opportunities in science and technology, the post-industrial restructuring of labor markets in both low- and high-status occupations, and women's success in graduating from STEM fields might explain the gender gap in STEM expectations. Empirically, we analyze 15-year-old pupils' occupational expectations from the OECD's PISA 2015 study linked with macro-level indicators in 35 EU and OECD countries by means of two-step multilevel models. Results indicate that the gender gap in STEM expectations is larger in countries with a more pronounced post-industrial restructuring of the labor market. However, rather than steering girls away from the STEM sector, post-industrial restructuring increases boys' STEM expectations and thus seems to strengthen their gender-typical tasks preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the role of youth activation in reproducing classed and gendered youth transitions. A large body of research on transitions examines how structural conditions continue to pattern youth transitions in the context of detraditionalization and individualisation. What is often missing from these analyses, is the role of institutional actors and youth policies. Based on a multi-sited ethnographic research in employment services in Helsinki, Finland, this article explores the role of youth activation and welfare conditionality in NEET young people's transitions. Youth activation refers to a complex mix of employment services, prevention of social exclusion, active labour market policies and welfare conditionality. The article shows how the seemingly supportive practices provided by youth employment services channel young people to a limited number of occupational tracks at the lower end of the labour market in a gendered manner. This channelling is institutionalised in the services' organisational structures and practices, and strengthened by welfare conditionality. The consequence is a powerful institutional pattern that structures and restricts youths' transition paths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changing nature of youth (under)employment in England since the start of the new millennium is explored through a comparative analysis of three cohorts of young working class men searching for work in English towns between 2001 and 2017. Labour market changes, including the rise of precarious work and forms of self-employment, as well as increasing inequality and cuts in youth services since the financial crisis in 2008, are having a serious impact on the least qualified young men. However, changes in the nature of employment at the bottom end of the service suggest the re-evaluation of earlier claims about the relative disadvantage of (some) young men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates entry-stage employment trajectories of young people in Germany, asking whether transitions into continuous employment indicate successful labour market integration. Applying a novel multidimensional approach to precariousness to individuals' employment and household trajectories, we understand entry-stage employment trajectories holistically. The balanced-panel sample is drawn from the German Socio-Economic Panel, with a focus on young men and women between 15 and 25 years of age in the first year of the sample period who had been employed at least once (n = 1360). Dual-channel sequence-cluster analysis reveals considerable variation in the precariousness of young people's entry-stage employment. While almost all young men and women experience periods of precariousness, the durations vary substantially. Precarious employment or precarious living conditions frequently occur during education. Our results confirm that individuals with disrupted employment trajectories are seldom successfully integrated into the labour market and frequently experience precarious employment. In previous research, transitions into continuous employment have been understood as the hallmark of successful labour market integration. This holds true for young women but not for young men, who experienced continuous and precarious entry-stage employment. To correctly identify young men's successful labour market integration, additional information about their employment precariousness is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Risks of exclusion can occur in multiple forms and start early in life. Early school leavers are especially at risk of social exclusion as this is strongly related to turbulent school-to-work-transitions. These young people often find themselves in low-qualified work or unemployment. In this article, we explore the labour market experiences of early school leavers in Flanders, Belgium. In total, 15 in-depth interviews were conducted with nine early school leavers and analysed following a grounded theory approach. Our results demonstrate the difficulties early school leavers encounter in their transitions from school to work and their precarious situation in the labour market. Of particular relevance are the insights gained in revealing the perspectives of young people on the importance of educational qualifications, work experience and participation in the labour market, as well as the strategies they develop to enter the labour market without educational qualifications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shortly after leaving Leicester for Scotland Andy Furlong began to wrestle with the complexities of school to work transitions as captured by the 1986 sweep of the British Cohort Study (BCS). His analysis was published as Schooling for Jobs. Although a relatively short text, this book was vitally important as it documented in detail, for the first time, the changes to career preparations of British secondary school children at the mid-point of a decade where the impact of deindustrialising processes, coupled with the neo-liberal policies of the political right, had ravaged the UK economy and decimated the youth labour market. The mid 1980s were a turning point that marked a shift to 'individuals' having responsibility for future career successes and the blaming of young people themselves for any perceived labour market failings. Central to this process was the Youth Training Scheme (YTS). Based on recent collaborations with Andy exploring YTS we have two main aims here. First, we revisit the BCS data to update the story and answer three interrelated questions: (i) what happened to the YTS participants from Furlong's analysis?; (ii) what were the long-term career and life 'impacts' for those who participated in YTS during the 1980s?; and (iii) were these job substitution schemes or gateways to real and meaningful work? Second, we conclude by reflecting upon this aspect of Andy's legacy and the shape of future research on youth training schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Labor force and school attachment may influence alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use in the US and Canada. Differences in social welfare provision, which provide protections for individuals with insecure attachments to the labor force or education, may in turn impact the behavior and health of youth in these countries. Yet, there is little research to understand the health consequences for youth of being out of the labor force and school (OLFS). Data of 25–29 year old participants of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (year 2010) and the Canadian Community Health Survey (2009–2010) were used to examine differences in substance use by labor force and school attachment. Logistic regression suggests that OLFS in the US and Canada were less likely to report alcohol uptake and more likely to use tobacco compared to employed youth. Unemployment was differentially associated with substance use behaviors by country. Country of residence and subsequent exposure to social welfare policy does not appear to impact substance use behaviors among OLFS. However, associations of unemployment and gender by country indicates differences in substance use behavior. More research should seek to understand factors that influence alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use among OLFS and unemployed youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This register-based study examined the importance of education on labour market participation among young refugees in Sweden. The study population consisted of unaccompanied (n = 1606) and accompanied refuges (n = 4142), aged 23-26 years in 2006-2010, after 7 years of residence in Sweden. Native Swedish, aged 24 years (n = 347,255) constituted the comparison population, with intercountry adoptees (n = 6689) as an alternative reference group. Gender-stratified multinomial regression models indicated that unaccompanied and accompanied male and female young refugees had higher risks of being in insecure work force and NEET compared to native Swedes with comparable levels of education. However, young refugees and intercountry adoptees with primary education had similar risks of poor labour market outcomes. The educational differences within each group concerning the risk of being in insecure work force were comparable. With the exception of unaccompanied females, secondary education seemed to be less protective against being in NEET among young refugees compared to native Swedes and intercountry adoptees. We conclude that while young refugees face employment disadvantages, education has the potential of mitigating poor labour market outcomes in this group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]