Composition and cumulative disadvantage of youth across Europe

Abstract

This introductory working paper provides the background information necessary to permit analysis for the project, “Social Exclusion of Youth in Europe: Cumulative Disadvantage, Coping Strategies, Effective Policies and Transfer, EXCEPT”. Focusing on recent school leavers in European countries, it compares various indicators for youth labour market exclusion and insecurity which are based on several micro-data sources. The report interprets the situation on the labour market during three periods and it is built around three main research topics: labour market exclusion, insecure employment and the labour market transitions affecting recent school leavers. The main results of this report in summary are: • recent school leavers experience more disadvantage on the labour market than prime age workers: they are more likely to be unemployed or NEET (neither in education, employment nor training), • the labour market situation of recent school leavers was damaged by the current economic crisis in the majority of European countries (except Germany), • unemployment of recent school leavers varies considerably between the European countries; Greece, Spain, Italy and Croatia provide the worst employment prospects for graduates, • educational attainment is the most important factor that improves the chance of recent school leavers to enter the labour market, • labour market insecurity for recent school leavers is closely related to labour market policy and country specific employment regulations, • in Southern Europe recent school leavers are overrepresented as temporary and part-time workers and are forced into these types of employment owing to the lack of available permanent job contracts, • in post-socialist countries, atypical, insecure forms of employment are a rare phenomenon for both recent school leavers and prime age workers, • in Spain, Greece and Italy, the labour market exclusion of recent school leavers, as depicted by high unemployment rates, overlaps high employment insecurity, • labour market entry trajectories differ between EU countries for recent school leavers. In Southern Europe and some post-socialist countries there is low labour market mobility, while in Austria and The Netherlands, and the UK, the transition of recent graduates into employment is much faster.