Uncertain Futures: Young People in and Out of Employment Since 1940

Abstract

In Britain, the period between the end of World War II and the mid 1970s witnessed an employment market which was relatively stable. Young people seeking entry into employment managed to do so with relative ease. There was a demand for labour which exceeded the supply. This stability allowed young people to be able to predict, to some extent, what sort of employment they were likely to attain. At one level it meant that the majority of young men could predict that they would become employed on a full-time basis. At another level, young people were even socialised into expecting particular types of work, for example young working class boys expected to get jobs typically done by members of the working class. Since the 1970s, however, the labour market has changed significantly. The extent to which young people can predict their future employment status has declined as the demand for full-time employment has, in many instances, been overtaken by the supply of those looking for it. Many young people today are thus in a more uncertain position. This uncertainty relates to how these young people will fare in the labour market: for young men, that of not becoming an established member of the full-time employed labour force; for young women, the uncertainty relates to changes in forms of labour market participation, but also to a decline, or at least the deferring of leaving the labour market to raise a family.