THE DETERMINANTS OF YOUTH TEMPORARY EMPLOYMENT IN THE ENLARGED EUROPE

This article uses comparative micro data from the 2004 European Union Labour Force Survey (EULFS) for 23 European countries to study the impact of labour market institutions on the youth relative temporary employment probability. We find relatively high temporary employment rates for young workers in all countries but also a large cross-country variation in this respect. The results of multi-level regression analyses confirm that neither employment protection of regular contracts nor its interaction with the level of employment protection of temporary contracts affects the young people's relative risk. Instead, we find a positive association between collective bargaining coverage as a measure of insider-outsider cleavages and the relative temporary employment risk of young persons. These results remain robust even after controlling for macro-structural conditions, such as unemployment rate and business uncertainty.