Determinants of Job-Finding Intentions Among Young Adults from 11 European Countries

Abstract

In this study we investigate the impact of individual, parental and social factors on young adults’ job-finding intentions across countries and overall. We test our hypotheses by conducting binary logistic regressions on the basis of an original dataset that comprises responses from more than 5200 young adults and their parents from 11 European countries. Our findings show that individual factors are most decisive in shaping the job-finding intentions of young adults. Most importantly, being enrolled in education does not prevent young adults from lowering their aspirations with respect to anticipated earnings or finding more sophisticated jobs. Social factors, in terms of being socially involved or having more friends in employment, lead to stronger mobility intentions as well as to stronger intentions to improve skills or develop new ones. At the country level, and compared to Italian participants, who go through a longer school-to-work transition, participants from Northern or Central European countries, as well as from the United Kingdom, show weaker mobility intentions. In many of these countries, young adults are also more willing than their Italian counterparts to lower income aspirations, while being less inclined to lower their aspirations in terms of finding more sophisticated jobs. In a last step, we reflect on education as a means of improving professional aspirations and the need to offer adequate on-the-ground services to help young people through the school-to-work transition, especially in Southern European countries.

Values, Health and Well-Being of Young Europeans Not in Employment, Education or Training (NEET)

“…Introducing control variables in the models slightly attenuated the regression weights the values had with SRH and SW, and it is most likely that social activity moderated the effects. Higher social activity might be seen as a stronger motivation to improve skills [ 77 ], but we show mainly adverse effects of improving skills on SRH and SW, which was also shown in earlier research [ 77 ]. The negative effects of improving skills might be due to the fact that participation in training is mandatory and must be attended to be eligible for benefits.…”

Young People's Perceptions of Youth Unemployment: Insights From 11 European Countries

“…In essence, the STWT is the process that occurs toward the end of adolescence and the beginning of adulthood when individuals make a transition from schooling to employment. These processes are shaped by numerous factors, from individual ones to macro-level factors such as the policy and institutional arrangements in place for governing the STWT; the latter tend to be path-dependent and therefore difficult to modify (Walther, 2006;Simões, Tosun, & Rocca, 2022). Smooth STWTs are typically marked by an awareness of the demands of the labour market, investment in human capital, and arrangements that facilitate the economic self-sufficiency of young people (Brzinsky-Fay, 2014).…”

“…The country selection reflects important dimensions of economic variation within Europe as well as variation in their political systems and (youth) welfare state arrangements. The latter in particular matters for how young people are affected by unemployment and includes STWT regimes (Chevalier, 2016;Dorsett & Lucchino, 2014;Simões, Tosun, & Rocca, 2022). The observations also comprise responses from the young people's parents, which is the most interesting feature of the CUPESSE dataset.…”