Broadening our Sight on Youth Employment

Abstract

The proposed symposium aims to broaden our sight on young people’s approach to, entry into, and experiences in, the labor market by bringing together papers that focus on both career agency and structure of opportunities. In doing so, the papers in this symposium make important contributions to understanding young labor market entrants’ work, employment, and careers beyond the focus of youth unemployment/underemployment. More specifically, we add knowledge that helps broadening our sight on youth employment by (i) showing the importance of tangible goals for adolescents’ career preparedness; (ii) delineating the process through which career self-management enhances education-to-work transition outcomes; (iii) examining the role of demographic factors on self-employment (an increasing trend in youth employment); and (iv) highlighting the prevalence of adverse working conditions for European youth. Moreover, each paper reports unexpected findings on youth employment that question the taken-for-granted approaches to employment and careers (e.g., a process approach to career preparedness does not predict career behaviors; career self-management and career competencies do not explain employment status for university-leavers; father monitoring and urban background are negatively associated with female Millennials’ self-employment; and despite higher exposure to adverse working conditions, European youth do not report poorer general well-being). Taken together, the studies in this symposium question the increasing emphasis on individual agency for early career decision making, success, and individual well- being. Promoting Career Preparedness in Adolescents: Testing Two Interventions Presenter: Julian Marciniak; U. of Bern Presenter: Andreas Hirschi; U. of Bern, Work and Organisational Psychology Presenter: Claire Johnston; U. of Bern Career Competencies and Career Self-Management Patterns Presenter: Rowena Blokker; Vrije U. Amsterdam Presenter: Jos Akkermans; Vrije U. Amsterdam Presenter: Svetlana Khapova; Vrije U. Amsterdam Early-Career Self-Employment Among Millennials in the Great Recession Presenter: Maria Figueroa-Armijos; EDHEC Business School Presenter: Serge P. Da Motta Veiga; EDHEC Business School Adverse Working Conditions and Young People’s Well-Being Presenter: Belgin Okay-Somerville; U. of Glasgow Presenter: Dora Scholarios; U. of Strathclyde, Scotland, UK Presenter: Edward Sosu; U. of Strathclyde