Youth unemployment, NEETs and structural inequality in Spain

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-448 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paula Rodriguez-Modroño

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to apply an intersectional analysis to assess the impact of structural factors on the risk of being a NEET for youth in Spain. The author study if inequalities have changed after the economic crisis, once youth policies designed to improve the Spanish school-to-work transition (SWT) system were implemented. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on microdata from the Spanish Survey on Income and Living Conditions, the paper compares the probability of becoming not in employment, education or training (NEET) of young men and women born inside or outside Spain and living in different types of households. Findings Although unemployment rates have improved since the end of the crisis, the situation regarding youth employment, poverty and inequalities remains challenging. Gender and other structural differences are usually ignored in policy debates and in the measures adopted to fight youth unemployment, leading to the persistance of inequalities. Research limitations/implications The analysis illustrates new lines and trajectories in the segmentation of youth labor markets along the lines of gender, household and country of origin. Practical implications The findings highlight the need for introducing an analysis of the different sources of vulnerability in policy designs in order to promote a real and sustainable change in SWTs. Originality/value The contribution of this research to the literature on NEET and SWT is to introduce a framework that allows for the intersectional analysis of gender and other structural inequalities.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Donald ◽  
Melanie J. Ashleigh ◽  
Yehuda Baruch

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to understand how universities and organizations have responded to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of preparing university students and recent graduates to enter the global labor market, using the accounting, banking and finance sector as a case study. The two research questions are (1) How can university career services and organizations work individually and collaboratively to best develop early career talent following the COVID-19 pandemic? (2) What are the challenges that university career services and organizations face when working individually or collaboratively to develop early career talent following the COVID-19 pandemic?Design/methodology/approachThe data for thematic analysis comes from 36 semi-structured interviews with career advisors (CAs) (n = 19) and graduate recruiters (GRs) (n = 17).FindingsThis study offers some of the first findings on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to ensure that organizational behavior and career theory literature reflect the dramatically changing landscape in the university-to-work transition.Originality/valueTheoretically, our contribution comes from applying a framework of the career construction theory (CTT) within the context of a career ecosystem to understand the views of the intermediary, meso-level actors, which, to date, have lacked representation within career literature. Practically, we provide an insightful bridge between universities and organizations, offering opportunities for greater collaboration, and enhanced outcomes for all stakeholders.


2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 337-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Bertram ◽  
Sarah McDonald

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore what helped seven people in contact with secondary mental health services achieve their vocational goals, such as: employment, education, training and volunteering. Design/methodology/approach – The authors used the practice of co-operative inquiry – staff and peer supporters co-designed an evaluation of vocational and peer support work with service users. Findings – Service users experienced invalidating living conditions that caused serious distress. These life struggles included: isolation, trauma events and stigma. The impact involved distressing emotions such as: despair, fear, pain and confusion. In contrast, when service users experienced supportive validating conditions (trusting relationships, engaging in valued activity and peer support) they reported being able to learn, change and grow – finding their own way forward, to improve well-being and quality of life. Research limitations/implications – Qualitative analysis from in-depth interviews revealed a range of consistent themes that enabled the authors to visually represent these and “begin” developing a model of change – grounded in lived experience. Further research is required to develop this model. Originality/value – The development of a model of change grounded in an invalidation/validation framework offers a different approach – in terms of how people are perceived and treated. This has relevance for Government policy development, clinical commissioning groups and practitioners.


2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ailsa Cameron ◽  
Lisa Bostock ◽  
Rachel Lart

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an update to a review of the joint working literature in the field of health and social care for adults, with particular emphasis given to the experiences of users and carers. Design/methodology/approach – The aims of the literature review remained largely the same as those of the original, they were to identify: models of joint working, evidence of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness and the factors promoting or hindering the models. However, to reflect the growing interest in the experiences of users and carers a fourth aim was added to map these experiences. Given their prominence in terms of policy debates about integration, the review focused on jointly organised services for older people and people with mental health problems in the UK only. Findings – The review demonstrates tentative signs that some initiatives designed to join-up or integrate services can deliver outcomes desired by government. Importantly some studies that report the experiences of users of services and carers suggest that they perceive benefits from efforts to join-up or integrate services. However it is our contention that the evidence is less than compelling and does not justify the faith invested in the strategy by current or previous governments. Originality/value – The study updates our knowledge of the impact of joint working in the field of health and social care for adults. Importantly the paper highlights what is known about the experiences of users and carers of joint/integrated services.


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-75
Author(s):  
Fahmida Khatun ◽  
Syed Yusuf Saadat

Technological advancement can displace workers with machines, but also create new jobs. Hence, at the crux of the matter lies a race between the rate of technological advancement and the pace at which educational institutions can empower workers with the right skills. For the countries of the South Asian region, generating jobs for youth will prove to be a challenge in the backdrop of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This paper investigates the impact of technological advancement on youth unemployment in the context of six South Asian countries, namely, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The results of the panel instrumental variables model estimations show that lower secondary completion rate has a negative relationship and capital–labour ratio has a positive relationship with the share of youth not in employment, education or training. However, since the magnitude of the coefficient of the lower secondary completion rate is greater than the magnitude of the coefficient of the capital–labour ratio, it is concluded that education will win the race against technology in South Asia, as long as the educational attainment rates are high enough to offset the impact of technical progress. JEL: E24, J01, J13, J64


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sílvia Monteiro ◽  
Leandro Almeida ◽  
Adela García-Aracil

PurposeThis study addresses the specific topic of transition between higher education and the world of work, taking differences naturally inherent to the individual and to the surrounding micro and macro contexts. With a holistic approach, this paper aimed to provide a deeper understanding about the university-to-work transition process in a period of turbulence and continuous changes in the labour market.Design/methodology/approachThe three research questions that guide this qualitative study are as follows: (1) What are the factors that facilitate the transition to the labour market? (2) What are the factors that constrain the transition to the labour market? (3) What are graduates' perceptions of their employability? To answer these questions, eleven graduates were interviewed about facilitators and barriers of the transition process and perceptions of employability. Data collected from the interviews were then related to categories previously defined from the literature review. Version 12.0 of the NVivo software was used to support the process of data analysis.FindingsOverall, participants' discourse refer to a multidimensional and dynamic perspective of factors related with work transition and employability. The obtained results indicate that the lack of career agency during graduation and professional experiences, together with late career exploration processes, represent possible barriers of transition, especially in study fields with targeted job offers. Likewise, experiences promoting the development of competencies through supportive practice from teachers, mentors and colleagues are referred as facilitators of transition.Practical implicationsOne of the most consistent outcomes of the interviews conducted concerns the importance of a stronger focus on developing practical experiences during higher education studies. This empirical study demonstrated how this type of experience can mitigate the impact of the transition from university to the labour market.Originality/valueThis empirical study demonstrated how work being integrated into learning in curricula can mitigate the impact of the transition from university to the labour market. It offers important insights about possible strategies that could be adopted to promote graduates' employability from a perspective of shared responsibility.


2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas Klein ◽  
Parimal Bhagat

Purpose – One of the key drivers of competitiveness and growth of emerging countries is their ability to innovate. While India has successfully implemented innovative processes for software development, many Western nations have led in new product designs. The purpose of this paper is to examine the basic premise that the underlying ability of a country to innovate, while being constrained by other situational and structural factors, depends on the innate ability of especially younger individuals in a society to be innovative. Recognizing this trait, companies have recently begun considering consumers as co-creators of technological products and services. Design/methodology/approach – Research has focused on the impact of innovativeness in the adoption and use of new technological products with limited research of its impact on the design and creation process. This basic study compares the technological innovativeness of young individuals between a developed country (USA) and an emerging economy (India) along several psychological and behavioral dimensions. Scale reliabilities, principal component analyses and regression analyses were conducted to find main influencers on technological innovativeness in both countries. Findings – While hypothesis were derived that creativity, passion, expertise, thinking style and psychographics influence innovativeness, results reveal first impressions that expertise and psychographics are the main influencers on the technological innovativeness of young individuals in both countries. Moreover, a decomposition of thinking style does not add further predictive power to the model. Originality/value – The paper helps to extend the understanding as well as to carve out main drivers of technological innovativeness of young individuals across countries. Implications on cross-cultural research and for managers as well as directions for further research are discussed.


Author(s):  
Beata Bal-Domańska

AbstractThe presented article follows the research mainstream of econometric analyses focused on the assessment of correlations between youth unemployment rate and market and macroeconomic determinants, including economic growth and productivity of the economy, its structure in terms of NACE Rev.2 sections as well as the labor market tools. The research addresses 28 European Union (EU) countries. The analysis period covers the years 2008–2018. The econometric methods dedicated to panel data were used. The research results confirm the importance of the general economic condition as well as the development of knowledge-based economy for the improvement of the youth situation in the labor market. With regard to the economy structure, the development of manufacturing section importance turned out to be a major factor in female youth unemployment rate reduction. The growing importance of the construction sector translated into a decline in the unemployment rate among young men.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Mussida ◽  
Dario Sciulli

PurposeThis paper evaluates how the first job when individuals entered the labor market affects the probability of youth being currently employed in formal or informal work in Bangladesh.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis is based on data from the ILO School-to-Work Transition Surveys. The authors use a full-information maximum likelihood approach to estimate a two-equation model, which accounts for selection into the labor market when estimating the impact of entry status on current work outcomes. The main equation outcome follows a multinomial distribution thus avoiding a priori assumptions about the level of individual’s utility associated with each work status.FindingsThe authors find that entering the labor market in a vulnerable employment position (i.e. contributing family work or self-employment) traps into vulnerable employment and prevents the transition to both informal and, especially, formal paid work. This finding holds when accounting for endogeneity of the entry status and it is valid both in the short and in the long run. Young women are less likely to enter the labor market, and once entered they are less likely to access formal paid wok and more likely to being inactive than young men. Low education anticipates the entry in the labor market, but it is detrimental for future employment prospects.Originality/valueThe findings indicate the presence of labor market segmentation between vulnerable and non-vulnerable employment and suggest the endpoint quality of the school-to-work transition is crucial for later employment prospects of Bangladeshi youth.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (8) ◽  
pp. 1458-1481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kamalbek Karymshakov ◽  
Burulcha Sulaimanova

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, it analyses the relationship between educational level, the school-to-work transition period for youth and positions which suffer from an education-job mismatch in Kyrgyzstan; and second, it investigates the effect of the education-job mismatch on the wages of youth in Kyrgyzstan. Design/methodology/approach The study uses the International Labor Organization 2013 data from the school-to-work transition survey for Kyrgyzstan. The Kaplan–Meier failure analysis is employed to demonstrate the relationship between school-to-work transition and mismatch status. To investigate the effect of an education-job mismatch on wages, a Mincer-type equation with OLS estimations is used. Along with this, taking into consideration potential unobserved heterogeneity issue, a propensity score matching method is applied. Findings The results indicate a large difference between those with tertiary education and those with non-tertiary education in terms of the probability of being employed with a wrong match. Young individuals without tertiary education are more likely to be employed with a right match. Analysis of the impact of overeducation on wages shows that the impact of overeducation depends on how it is measured. According to the objective approach, overeducated male individuals receive low wages compared to well matched, but estimation results based on the total sample of subjective approach indicate the positive effects of overeducation on wage. Originality/value This paper contributes to the existing literature on the school-to-work transition and overeducation by focusing on one of the transition economies, which has been largely neglected by the literature.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (8) ◽  
pp. 1411-1437 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Brunetti ◽  
Lorenzo Corsini

Purpose Youth unemployment is one of the major problems that the economic systems face. Given this issue, the purpose of this paper is to assess whether school-to-work transition is easier for individuals with secondary vocational education compared to general secondary education. The authors want to explore which vocational systems across Europe produce better effects. Design/methodology/approach The authors use data from a module on “Entry of young people into the labour market” from the 2009 and 2014 European Labour Survey and they estimate multinomial probit models, allowing for violation of the irrelevance of the alternative assumption. Findings The authors find that in countries with the dual vocational system, vocational education improves employability both in the short and medium run, whereas in countries with a school-based vocational system, results are mixed and, only in some cases, the effect of vocational studies is significantly positive. Research limitations/implications Sample size for short-run analysis is a bit small in a few countries (Austria and Germany). Moreover, even if the authors have reason to believe that the methods adopted are mitigating the omitted heterogeneity issues and robustness checks are run on these aspects, these issues cannot be fully excluded. Practical implications The authors provide policy implications, showing that dual vocational systems can improve school-to-work transitions and that vocational structure is particularly effective in this case. Social implications The authors provide information on which education model may offer better chance in terms of labour outcomes. Originality/value Given the relevance of youth unemployment, the authors provide valuable information on how to mitigate this problem. The use of cross-country comparisons offers great insights on which vocational systems appear to be well-suited to enhance employability.


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