Young adult occupational transition regimes in Europe: does gender matter?
International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy
ISSN: 0144-333X
Article publication date: 12 March 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to achieve a greater understanding of the transitions young adults experience into and out of the labour market and the influence that gender and married/cohabiting status have on employment careers.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper focuses on young adults (25-34 years old) in four European countries – Italy, the Netherlands, the UK and Norway – that are representative of different youth transition regimes. Using longitudinal data from EU-SILC survey (for the years 2006-2012) and event history analysis, the authors investigate the effect of the particular set of institutional features of each country, the effect of the cohort of entry and the effect of gender differences in determining transitions across labour market status.
Findings
Findings show that the filter exercised by the national institutions has a selective impact on the careers of young adults, with some institutional contexts more protective than others. In this respect, the condition of inactivity emerges as an interesting finding: on one side, it mainly involves women in a partnership, on the other side it is more common in protective youth regimes, suggesting that it may be a chosen rather than suffered condition.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to existing literature by: focusing on a specific category, young adults from 25 to 34 years old, which is increasingly recognised as a critical stage in the life course though it receives less attention than its younger counterpart (15-24); integrating the importance of family dynamics on work careers by analysing the different effects played by married/cohabiting status for men and women.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Elena Claudia Meroni and Marianna Filandri for advice at early stages of the research. The views expressed are purely those of the writer and the responsibility for all conclusions drawn from the data lies entirely with the authors.
Citation
Goglio, V. and Rizza, R. (2018), "Young adult occupational transition regimes in Europe: does gender matter?", International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, Vol. 38 No. 1/2, pp. 130-149. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSSP-04-2017-0052
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited