Young people in rural areas are under-researched, and there is a particular paucity of studies on rural youth in the labour market. This paper addresses that dearth. I pose the research question: how does rural location affect the earnings of young people in full-time employment in Britain? I consider the background of rural disadvantage, and its specific effects on young people and outline the relevance of social capital to this topic, identifying norms and networks as the two constituent elements of the concept. Using data from the British Household Panel Survey Wave 17 (2007/8), I find that rural youth are paid less than urban counterparts. When coupled with higher living costs, this amounts to a double disadvantage for rural youth. Concerning social capital, I find that norms Á in terms of trust in individuals, community and institutions Á exert a significant effect on net pay. Conversely, despite prior research positing the importance of informal contacts for rural jobseekers, networks do not exhibit any significant effect on wages. This corroborates accounts of social capital as a protean concept, illustrating how one facet alters the likelihood of finding work, while the other facet determines outcomes once in employment.
This paper compares rural and urban youth employment prospects, based on semi-structured\ud
interviews with 41 young people in England, and British Household Panel Survey data (2007/8).\ud
Rural location brings distinct labour market disadvantages for young people. Personal networks are\ud
pivotal for securing employment and lacking such contacts is a problem in rural areas. Unadvertised\ud
job vacancies and the relative absence of big business are also obstacles for rural youth, as is\ud
inability to relocate. Although opportunities are scarcer in rural areas, some individuals aspire to\ud
work in uniquely rural occupations even if the work is low-skilled and without promotion prospects
This article analyses the longitudinal effect of rural/urban migration on labour market outcomes for young people in Britain. It assesses how rural/urban origin and residential location affect career prospects by tracking earnings from youth (defined as aged under 25) into adulthood, using data from British Household Panel Survey waves 1-18. Earnings in rural areas are higher overall, although young people in rural areas are paid less than urban counterparts, and have been since 1993. While earnings increase at a quicker rate for those in rural locations, being from rural origin leads to slower wage growth. Respondents who 'stay rural' throughout the full observation period report lower earnings than all other groups.
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