Youth Labor in Transition ― Inequalities, Mobility, and Policies in Europe

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Exacerbated by the Great Recession, youth transitions to employment and adulthood have become increasingly protracted, precarious, and differentiated by gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. Youth Labor in Transition examines young people's integration into employment, alongside the decisions and consequences of migrating to find work and later returning home. The authors identify key challenges for the future concerning overeducation, self-employment, and ethnicity, as well values and attitudes of young people and how they identify with trade unions. Collectively, the authors illustrate the need to encompass a wider understanding of youth employment and job insecurity by including an analysis of economic production and how it relates to social reproduction of labor if policy intervention is to be effective.

The mapping and extensive analysis in this book are the result of a three-and-a-half year, European Union-funded research project ("STYLE"-Strategic Transitions for Youth Labour in Europe) coordinated by the volume editors. With an overall budget of just under $e5 million and involving 25 research partners; an international advisory network and local advisory boards of employers, unions, policymakers; and non-governmental organizations from over 20 European countries, STYLE is one of the largest European Commission-funded research projects to exist on this topic.

Jacqueline O'Reilly, PhD, is Full Professor at the University of Sussex Business School, UK; Chair of the Editorial Board for Work, Employment and Society; and member of the Executive Council of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics.

Janine Leschke, PhD, is Associate Professor at the Department of Business and Politics at Copenhagen Business School and Head of the Doctoral School of Organisation and Management Studies.

Renate Ortlieb, PhD, MSc, is Professor of Human Resource Management and Head of the Department of Human Resource Management at the University of Graz, Austria. She is Editor-in-Chief of the German Journal of Human Resource Management.

Martin Seeleib-Kaiser, PhD, MA, is Professor of Comparative Public Policy in the Institute of Political Science at Eberhard Karls Universitat Tubingen, Germany.

Paola Villa, PhD, is Full Professor of Applied Economics in the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Trento, Italy.