The changing face of youth employment in Europe

This article examines trends in youth employment across the EU-15 countries during 2002-2006 and 2007-2011. Drawing upon microdata from the EU Labour Force Survey it examines changes in contract type, hours worked and occupation by level of education. Although the financial crisis creates a discontinuity in numbers employed, and despite certain country specificities, the authors observe common structural changes across the two periods. They find an increasing shift from permanent full-time to temporary part-time contracts, the 'hollowing out' of traditional mid-skill level occupations and evidence of 'occupational filtering down' whereby the higher-educated are substituted for the lower-educated in low-skilled occupations. The authors observe some growth in 'professionals' following the crisis, but little evidence of the rise of a new knowledge economy. This raises questions concerning the most appropriate policy approaches to education and training and labour market regulation if European nations are to provide high-quality employment opportunities for their young people.