Abstract
The aim of this study is to explore individual-level and family background determinants of young adults’ unemployment. Compared to previous studies, we focus on extended adulthood by including a broader age range in the sample of young adults (18–35 years), and on less explored individual predictors. A harmonized data set, based on representative cross-sectional national surveys conducted in 2016 in eleven European countries, was used to analyze individual level predictors of young adults’ unemployment. For young economically active individuals (N = 14,602), we estimated logistic regressions with the dependent variable representing odds of being unemployed. The findings suggest that besides age, gender, education, migration and ethnic backgrounds, caring responsibilities or unemployment experience, there are other important predictors of young adults’ unemployment such as religious affiliation, risk taking and parental unemployment experience. Obtained estimates are robust and can be thus more likely generalized in comparison with previous findings. Policy-makers and labor market offices should better address those groups of young adults most endangered by unemployment such as younger individuals, women, ethnic minorities, risk averse young adults or those with parental unemployment history through more effective, inclusive and tailored education and labor market policies as well as specific counselling support services for career orientation and development.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
For details, see the project website: https://cupesse.eu/.
References
Arnett JJ (2000) Emerging adulthood: a theory of development from the late teens through the twenties. Am Psychol 55(5):469–480
Arnett JJ, Padilla-Walker LM (2015) Brief report: Danish emerging adults' conceptions of adulthood. J adolesc 38:39–44
Axelrad H, Malul M, Luski I (2018) Unemployment among younger and older individuals: does conventional data about unemployment tell us the whole story? J Labour Mark Res 52(1):3
Bell DN, Blanchflower DG (2011) Young people and the great recession. Oxford Rev Econ Policy 27(2):241–267
Bernal-Verdugo LE, Furceri D, Guillaume D (2012) Labor market flexibility and unemployment: new empirical evidence of static and dynamic effects. Comp Econ Stud 54(2):251–273
Bertola G, Blau FD, Kahn LM (2007) Labor market institutions and demographic employment patterns. J Population Econ 20(4):833–867
Blackaby D, Leslie D, Murphy P, O’Leary N (1999) Unemployment among Britain’s ethnic minorities. Manch Sch 67(1):1–20
Brada JC, Marelli E, Signorelli M (2014) Introduction: young people and the labor market: key determinants and new evidence. Comp Econ Stud 56(4):556–566
Breuss F (2016) The crisis in retrospect: causes, effects and policy responses. In: Badinger H, Nitsch V (eds) Routledge handbook of the economics of European integration, Routledge, London and New York, pp 331–350
Burgess S, Propper C, Rees H, Shearer A (2003) The class of 1981: the effects of early-career unemployment on subsequent unemployment experiences. Labour Econ 10(3):291–309
Buser T, Niederle M, Oosterbeek H (2014) Gender, competitiveness, and career choices. Q J Econ 129(3):1409–1447
Caliendo M, Schmidl R (2016) Youth unemployment and active labor market policies in Europe. IZA J Labour Policy 5(1):1–30
Christl M, Köppl-Turyna M, Kucsera D (2017) Effects of collective minimum wages on youth employment in Austria. Empirica 44(4):781–805
Clark C, Smuk M, Lain D, Stansfeld SA, Carr E, Head J, Vickerstaff S (2017) Impact of childhood and adulthood psychological health on labor force participation and exit in later life. Psychol Med 47(9):1597–1608. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291717000010
Crisp R, Powell R (2017) Young people and UK labor market policy: a critique of ‘employability’ as a tool for understanding youth unemployment. Urban Stud 54(8):1784–1807
CUPESSE (2018) Cultural pathways to economic self-sufficiency and entrepreneurship. https://cupesse.eu/. Accessed 22 Mar 2018
De la Fuente A (2011) Population and social conditions. Eurostat Stat Focus 57:1–7
Diaz-Serrano L, O’Neill D (2004) The relationship between unemployment and risk aversion (no. 1214). Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn
Dohmen T, Falk A, Huffman D, Sunde U, Schupp J, Wagner GG (2011) Individual risk attitudes: measurement, determinants, and behavioural consequences. J Eur Econ Assoc 9(3):522–550
Dolado JJ, Jansen M, Felgueroso F, Fuentes A, Wölfl A (2013) Youth labour market performance in spain and its determinants. OECD Library, Paris
Dustmann C, Fasani F, Meng X, Minale L (2017) Risk attitudes and household migration decisions (no. 10603). IZA policy paper
Eichhorst W, Hinte H, Rinne U (2013) Youth unemployment in Europe: what to do about it? (no. 65). IZA policy paper
Eurostat (2017) Database. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat. Accessed on 10 Aug 2017
Eurostat (2018) Share of young adults aged 18–34 living with their parents by age and sex—EU-SILC survey. http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=ilc_lvps08. Accessed 22 Mar 2018
Feldmann H (2007) Economic freedom and unemployment around the world. South Econ J 74(1):158–176
GESIS Data Archive, Tosun J, Arco-Tirdao JL, Caserta M, Cemalcilar Z, Freitag M, Hörisch F, Jensen C, Kittel B, Littvay L, Lukeš M, Maloney WA, Mühlböck M, Rainsford E, Rapp C, Schuck B, Shore J, Steiber N, Sümer N, Tsakoglou P, Vancea M, Vegetti F (2018) CUPESSE: cultural pathways to economic self-sufficiency and entrepreneurship—dataset. https://search.gesis.org/research_data/ZA7475. Accessed 12 Sep 2018. https://doi.org/10.4232/1.13042
Ghoshray A, Ordóñez J, Sala H (2016) Euro, crisis and unemployment: youth patterns, youth policies? Econ Model 58:442–453
Guiso L, Jappelli T, Pistaferri L (2002) An empirical analysis of earnings and employment risk. J Bus Econ Stat 20(2):241–253
Heely AE, Breen M (2014) Religiosity in times of insecurity: an analysis of Irish, Spanish and Portuguese European Social Survey data, 2002–12. Ir J Sociol 22(2):4–29
Heritage Foundation (2017) Database. http://www.heritage.org/index/. Accessed on 10 Aug 2017
Hutengs O, Stadtmann G (2014) Age-and gender-specific unemployment in Scandinavian countries: an analysis based on Okun’s law. Comp Econ Stud 56(4):567–580
Immerzeel T, van Tubergen F (2013) Religion as reassurance? Testing the insecurity theory in 26 European Countries. Eur Sociol Rev 29(2):359–372
Isengard B (2003) Youth unemployment: Individual risk factors and institutional determinants A case study of Germany and the United Kingdom. J Youth Stud 6(4):357–376
Kelly E, McGuinness S, O’Connell PJ (2012) Transitions to long-term unemployment risk among young people: evidence from Ireland. J Youth Stud 15(6):780–801
Kelly E, McGuinness S, O’connell PJ, Haugh D, Pandiella AG (2014) Transitions in and out of unemployment among young people in the Irish recession. Comp Econ Stud 56(4):616–634
Khattab N, Johnston R (2013) Ethnic and religious penalties in a changing British labour market from 2002 to 2010: the case of unemployment. Environ Plan A 45(6):1358–1371
Kind M (2015) Start me up: How fathers’ unemployment affects their sons’ school-to-work transitions (no. 583). RWI-Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen
Klug K (2017) Young and at risk? consequences of job insecurity for mental health and satisfaction among labor market entrants with different levels of education. Econ Ind Democr. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X17731609
Lindley J (2002) Race or religion? The impact of religion on the employment and earnings of Britain's ethnic communities. J ethn Migr Stud 28(3):427–442
Long CD (1958) The labor force under changing income and employment. In: NBER books. National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, Cambridge
Lönnqvist JE, Verkasalo M, Walkowitz G, Wichardt PC (2015) Measuring individual risk attitudes in the lab: task or ask? An empirical comparison. J Econ Behav Organ 119:254–266
Lundin A, Hemmingsson T (2013) Adolescent predictors of unemployment and disability pension across the life course—a longitudinal study of selection in 49 321 Swedish men (No. 2013: 25). IFAU-Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy, Uppsala
Marelli E, Vakulenko E (2016) Youth unemployment in Italy and Russia: aggregate trends and individual determinants. Econ Labour Relat Rev 27(3):387–405
Mendolia S, Walker I (2015) Youth unemployment and personality traits. IZA J Labor Econ 4(1):19
Meredith N (2017) Religion and labor: an examination of religious service attendance and unemployment using count data methods. East Econ J 43:451–471
Mojsoska-Blazevski N, Petreski M, Bojadziev MI (2017) Youth survival in the labour market: employment scarring in three transition economies. Econ Labour Relat Rev 28(2):312–331
Nachman D (1979) On the theory of risk-aversion and the theory of risk. J Econ Theory 21:317–335
Neumark D, Wascher W (2004) Minimum wages, labor market institutions, and youth employment: a cross-national analysis. ILR Rev 57(2):223–248
Nunez I, Livanos I (2015) Temps “by choice”? An investigation of the reasons behind temporary employment among young workers in Europe. J Labor Res 36:44–66
Nunziata L, Staffolani S (2007) Short‐term contracts regulations and dynamic labour demand: theory and evidence. Scott J Polit Econ 54(1):72–104
Oberschachtsiek D, Ullrich B (2010) The link between career risk aversion and unemployment duration: evidence of non-linear and time-depending pattern (no. 189). University of Lüneburg working paper series in economics
O’Reilly J, Eichhorst W, Gábos A, Hadjivassiliou K, Lain D, Leschke J et al (2015) Five characteristics of youth unemployment in Europe: flexibility, education, migration, family legacies, and EU policy. Sage Open 5(1):2158244015574962
Papadopoulos O (2016) Economic crisis and youth unemployment: comparing Greece and Ireland. Eur J Ind Relat 22(4):409–426
Pastore F (2015) The European Youth Guarantee: labor market context, conditions and opportunities in Italy. IZA J Eur Lab Stud 4(1):11
Quintini G, Martin S (2006) Starting well or losing their way?: The position of youth in the labour market in OECD countries. OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 39, OECD Publishing
Ralston K, Feng Z, Everington D, Dibben C (2016) Do young people not in education, employment or training experience long-term occupational scarring? A longitudinal analysis over 20 years of follow-up. Contemp Soc Sci 11(2–3):203–221
Raum O, Røed K (2006) Do business cycle conditions at the time of labor market entry affect future employment prospects? Rev Econ Stat 88(2):193–210
Reneflot A, Evensen M (2014) Unemployment and psychological distress among young adults in the Nordic countries: a review of the literature. Int J Soc Welf 23(1):3–15
Ryan P (2001) The school-to-work transition: a cross-national perspective. J econ lit 39(1):34–92
Sarfati H (2013) Coping with the unemployment crisis in Europe. Int Labor Rev 152(1):145–156
Scheve K, Stasavage D (2006) Religion and preferences for social insurance. Q J Polit Sci 1(3):255–286
Schioppa FKP, Lupi C (2002) Family income and wealth, youth unemployment and active labour market policies. Int Rev Appl Econ 16(4):407–416
Shapiro C, Stiglitz JE (1984) Equilibrium unemployment as a worker discipline device. Am Econ Rev 74(3):433–444
Skedinger P (2010) Employment protection legislation: evolution, effects, winners and losers. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham
Tanveer Choudhry M, Marelli E, Signorelli M (2012) Youth unemployment rate and impact of financial crises. Int J Manpow 33(1):76–95
Tomić I (2018) What drives youth unemployment in Europe? Economic vs. non‐economic determinants. Int Labour Rev 157(3):379–408
Tosun J, Unt M, Wadensjö E (2017) Youth-oriented active labour market policies: explaining policy effort in the nordic and the baltic states. Soc Policy Adm 51(4):598–616
Tosun J, Arco-Tirdao JL, Caserta M, Cemalcilar Z, Freitag M, Hörisch F, Jensen C, Kittel B, Littvay L, Lukeš M, Maloney WA, Mühlböck M, Rainsford E, Rapp C, Schuck B, Shore J, Steiber N, Sümer N, Tsakoglou P, Vancea M, Vegetti F (2018) Perceived economic self-sufficiency: a country- and generation-comparative approach. Eur Polit Sci. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41304-018-0186-3
Van Hoorn A, Maseland R (2013) Does a Protestant work ethic exist? Evidence from the well-being effect of unemployment. J Econ Behav Organ 91:1–12
Vancea M, Utzet M (2017) How unemployment and precarious employment affect the health of young people: a scoping study on social determinants. Scand J Public Health 45(1):73–84
Vancea M, Utzet M (2018) School-to-work transition: the case of Spanish NEETs. J Youth Stud. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2017.1421313
Vasilescu MD, Cristescu A (2016) The determinants of youth unemployment: a microeconomic approach. In: Vision 2020: innovation management, development sustainability, and competitive economic growth, pp 1361–1370
Weber M (1920) The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism, 3rd edn. Roxbury Publishing, Los Angeles
Weil SW, Wildemeersch D, Percy-Smith B (2017) Unemployed youth and social exclusion in Europe: learning for inclusion?. Routledge, London
Wooldridge JM (2010) Econometric analysis of cross section and panel data. MIT press, Cambridge
World Bank (2017) Database. http://databank.worldbank.org/data/home.aspx. Accessed on 10 Aug 2017
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the EU collaborative research Project CUPESSE (Cultural Pathways to Economic Self-Sufficiency and Entrepreneurship; Grant Agreement No. 613257). We thank the editor Fritz Breuss and anonymous referees for their valuable contributions to the development of this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Appendix
Appendix
See Table 5.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dvouletý, O., Lukeš, M. & Vancea, M. Individual-level and family background determinants of young adults’ unemployment in Europe. Empirica 47, 389–409 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10663-018-9430-x
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10663-018-9430-x
Keywords
- Young adults
- Unemployment
- Labor market
- Socio-demographic characteristics
- Parental influence
- Europe
- Determinants of unemployment