Martina Trbanc; FSS

Youth in transition and their employability in modern societies

This paper aims to present different factors that influence the employability of the youth in the circumstances that are increasingly determined by changes in the labour markets and the increasing flexibility of employment. The paper consists of four parts: a short introductory thought is followed by a description of changes in the modern societies, which are the cause that the transitions of youth from education to employment last longer and are more demanding, next, the factors that influence employment of the youth are presented, and finally, the factors that are specific for Slovenia, or are more pronounced in Slovenia than in other European countries (EU members), are exposed.

Introduction

Youth is determined as the age of transition from childhood into adulthood, i.e. the period during which the individuals (young people) accept all important social roles that determine adulthood. In this age they develop social skills and abilities that are necessary to obtain the status of and adult in different areas – occupation and work, interaction and partner relationship, politics and ethics, consuming and culture. Youth is a highly dynamic period of life that is full of transitions between statuses and situations in different fields.

Of all the transitions of youth between statuses and situations, the most demanding and important transition is the transition from education into the world of work, i.e. the world of more or less stable employment. Namely, it is the successful transition into a more or less stable employment that puts the youth among the equal members of society, as the employment allows them social and economic independence and also gives them the opportunity of a long-term planning of life, career family, living conditions, etc. Unemployment (particularly long-term unemployment) of the youth is not difficult only because of the placement into the system of work and their future career opportunities (e.g. influence of unemployment on the development of attitude towards work and work ethics in the youth, the possible negative attitude towards work with the youth that were not yet employed), but also because of negative psychological (low self-image, the feeling of not managing one’s own life) and broader social consequences (prolongation of the economic and social dependence of the youth on the family and society, late attainment of independence, late decision to raise a family, etc.). From the macroeconomical viewpoint, the unemployment among the youth is also a poor use of working potential, and to that, in a group that has just got out of the education system and is thus the holder of new knowledge and will be in the market for a long time.

In most of EU countries, the unemployment among youth is approximately two times higher than the overall unemployment. On average, the overall unemployment rate in 15 old EU members in 2002 was 7.7 percent and the youth unemployment rate (15-24 years) 14.6 percent (Eurostat, 2003). The youth unemployment rate in Slovenia in 2002 was 15 percent (the overall unemployment rate 5.9 %) and 14.2 percent in 2004 (overall unemployment rate 6.1%). However, just as important (or even more) as the youth unemployment rate is the structure (which categories of young people are unemployed and why) and above all the duration of the unemployment, which is generally shorter in youth that in other groups of unemployed. The latter reason is why the raising percentages of young people who remain unemployed for more than 6 months or even more than a year are in most of the countries a cause for introducing special measures.

Social and economic changes in modern societies and the consequences for the youth

Modern developed societies are marked by structural changes that mostly depend on globalisation (global competition) and rapid technological changes (supported by information and communication technologies). At the same time, also important demographical and social changes have been occuring for several decades (ageing population of European countries, changes in the structure of the family, individualization of the course of life, detraditionalization). The consequences in the fields of work and employment are complex and are most apparently shown in the intensification of the work, the increased pressure to raise productivity, the flexibilization of the labour markets and labour relations, the deindustrialization and the structural unemployment. In Europe, the education requirements are considerably growing, partly because of the need for competitiveness of the economy and new technologies, and partly because of the finding that the knowledge plays a key role in flexibility, which is necessary for successful and efficient functioning of modern societies. The fact that we are increasingly referring to developed societies as knowledge-based societies (Pascual, 2002) is a sign of the awareness that above all the knowledge is the key factor that can contribute added value. Thus it is not surprising that in the last decade and a half, all European countries place significant stress on the policies of education and training for the youth (reforms and modernisation of education systems, adaptation of education programmes to the changes in work-force demand), and also for adults (stimulation of different forms of life-long education) and within this especially for the unemployed. Education is becoming an essential but not anymore a sufficient condition for employment or for a better position on the labour market.  Besides education, the employers often also require suitable work experience and references on the types of work that the individual has performed, as well as numerous additional knowledge and skills. Changes in the type of knowledge required in modern societies are well represented by the lately very popular concept of competences that stresses the need for knowledge that is useful in different circumstances. Competences are thus the ability of the individual to activate, use and link the obtained knowledge in complex, diverse and unpredictable circumstances. All these changes and above all the flexibilization of the employment (labour relations) present new risks and uncertainty for individuals. Their work and life paths (career) are increasingly less predictable, but above all the individual's risk is increasing, which arises from the participation in the labour market, more specifically from the increasing number of partial and insecure employments, which do not ensure material and social security to the individuals, because they are either of short duration or poorly paid or are interrupted by longer periods of unemployment. The answer of employment and social policies of EU states to the changes at the labour market and in economic and social systems is based on the principle of ensuring social security and inclusion of all citizens, however increasingly prominent is also the expectation towards the individuals to take over the responsibility for their employment and material and social security. This is well conveyed in the principle of activation of unemployed and inactive individuals. The principle of activation introduces a new definition of the relationship between the rights and the duties of individuals, as their right for social security benefits and compensations is not automatic anymore, but depends instead on the duties and obligations of the individual – their main obligation above all is to actively seek employment. Vocational or career guidance programmes and the programmes for teaching employment-seeking skills (finding vacancies, presentation to possible employers, etc.) hold an important place within employment policy measures that are aimed towards activation.

All described changes also influence the socialization, i.e. growing up of the youth. Besides the obvious fact that the duration of youth is being prolonged (longer periods of education, average age of first employment is rising, as well as the average age at which the youth move away from their parents – which is also affected by changed inter-generational relations, which are increasingly marked by partnership relations and less by conflicts, the average age of having the first baby is rising, etc.), the researchers (e.g. Ule, 2003) also state that in modern societies the patterns of growing up and the different criteria of growing up are changing more complexly. While young people become economically independent at an increasingly later age and thus the youth is being prolonged into the late twenties (and even into the early thirties), other (social and cultural) criteria show that some activities and decisions that are characteristic of adult age are being transferred into the early years of youth or childhood (e.g. key decisions on vocational or career choices, pressure in education towards obtaining more awards, certificates, titles, and so on, autonomous creation of life-styles, independent participation in the market of goods and in consumption, etc.). The principles of activity that are characteristic of the economic field (competitiveness) are being increasingly transferred into education.

The researchers (e.g. Pollock, 1997, OECD, 1998, Hammer, 2003, Bradley and van Hoof, 2005) note that the transitions from education into the world of work are increasingly longer and more complex and also increasingly more differentiated for individual groups of young people (mostly in regard to the level and type or field of education). Among the youth the transitions into employment and from it (from unemployment and into it) are far more dynamic than among older workforce, because they are more often employed under fixed-term or part-time employment contracts. Unemployment is obviously more common among the youth, but it is of shorter duration than among the older workforce. Because of the changes in the structure of demand and because of the increased flexibility of the labour markets is the structure of employment opportunities for young people strongly changing, particularly in terms of sustainability and security of the employment.

Factors that influence employment of the youth

The characteristics that differentiate young people from categories of workers with higher age, may be described as competitive advantages or drawbacks of the youth in the labour market. We are talking about characteristics that may be factual and objective (e.g. new knowledge, lack of working experience and similar), but may also be merely attributed (like general beliefs linked to the youth, or the beliefs of the employers about the youth). The youth are traditionally attributed to be less responsible, less loyal, unsteady, not serious, not mature, predisposed to changing established practices and to possess other characteristics, because of which they are regarded as risky workforce. On the other hand, the youth are regarded as much more susceptible to changes in the working process than older workers, more innovative, adaptable and less demanding, because of which they are prepared to accept a worse job (less demanding in respect of their education), temporary or part-time employment, physically demanding work or work that is performed in more difficult working conditions or during unfavourable working hours. These last characteristics (not considering if they are attributed or factual) are a competitive advantage of the youth in increasingly flexible labour markets.

But their key (objective) competitive advantage is above all newer and more complex knowledge they have gained in their education. Of course this is true for the young people who have completed their education on at least secondary level. Those that have prematurely left the education (drop-outs) are namely in a worse position than the older poorly educated workforce, as the older workers compensate for the lack of education by years of service, working experience, loyalty to the employer and so on, while the under educated youth at the labour market hold a peripheral place, have occasional and temporary, poorly paid jobs and experience frequent transitions to unemployment or even remain unemployed for longer periods (OECD, 2005). The differentiation or polarisation of employment opportunities for the youth with regard to the obtained education is thus apparent (as well as with regard to the field of their education). Besides knowledge, young people also possess a greater number of skills and competences than older workforce that are very sought after by the employers because of the changing nature of work and working processes and which often present additional requirements or advantages in the competition for employment. We are talking, for example, about the ability to use the computer, computer applications and the Internet, the ability to find and use different information, communication skills, group work skills, project work, active knowledge of foreign languages, etc. Partly, these skills and competences are acquired during education, but a significant part also through socialization and different experiences during growing up and development of personality (trips, familiarization with other cultures, encountering diversity, usage of modern information and communication technologies, etc.).

The lack of working experience is usually understood as the main competitive disadvantage of the young work force. Although the education ensures basic knowledge that is required to perform work, it is the working experience that gives the knowledge applicability. Besides that, the employers can infer from the working history (career) of the individual some characteristics like the stability, loyalty, structure of career, actual competence to perform a certain work, etc. But young people who are seeking their first employment are usually not completely lacking working experience. At least partly can they be obtained through work experience placements during education, through summer jobs and voluntary work, but this experience is often not related to the vocational or professional field for which they were educated and in which they are trying to find employment. It occurs quite frequently that young people with various experience do not perceive these as working experience or do not know how to present them as such.

The importance that the employers attribute to the working experience differs among European states, but it is very dependent on the composition of national education and training systems and systemic links between the education and working fields. In states, in which the education is oriented more generally, and the employers do not have the influence over the content of educational programmes and are not directly providing different types of training during education, is the importance of working experience more apparent in employment. On the other hand, the employers in the states that have strong vocational and professional education, and where they have been traditionally included in the formation and provision of work training programmes for youth, are more prepared to employ youth right after completing education. 21

The employment of the youth is influenced by numerous intertwined circumstances and trends. The following seem most important:

Economic trends (cycles) and situation in local / regional markets

Labour market trends are tightly connected with the trends on the financial market and market of goods and services. The interaction of employment trends with economic cycles, flows and variations is especially apparent in employment of the youth, as the unemployment during economic recession first affects those that are only entering the system of employment – these are mostly young people after finishing education and young people who are employed under fixed-term employment contracts. This is especially true when the lay-offs of the permanently employed workers is rigidly regulated by law or takes a long time. A good practical demonstration of this claim is the employment status in Slovenia in the first half of nineties, when the companies, besides dealing with the economic crisis, with the search for new markets for their products and services, had also dealt with internal restructuring and redundancy of work force; new employments were virtually non-existent, which had caused a significant increase in the youth unemployment rate (in 1993 it was as high as 24.3 %, which was 2.7 times more than the general unemployment rate).

As the influx of the youth after finished education onto the market is considerable, it depends on the economic trends and cycles how quickly the market can absorb the new work force (if at all). For the employment of the youth it is also very important whether there is a structural imbalance between the demand and the supply of the workforce in regional and local labour markets, as well as the way in which these imbalances are covered by the youth.

Demographic trends

Decline of the birth rate in Europe is a lasting characteristic, which together with the rising life expectancies lead towards ageing of the population in all European states; the demographic projections show that Slovenia is one of the most endangered countries in this respect. The stagnation and reduction of the share of youth causes a decrease in the number of people able to work, from which the active population comes, as well as the ageing of this population (which is contributed to, although unavoidable, by the rising life expectancy). According to the projection on Slovenian population that was made during the nineties (with unchanged, relatively low immigration, moderate economic growth, moderate productivity growth and low but stable birth-rate coefficient) we can expect a severe lack of workforce in the country somewhere around 2015 (Kraigher, 1995: 53–57).

A lower portion of the youth directly means a lower influx of the youth onto the labour market, the consequence of which is a gradual fall of the youth unemployment rates. Considering the projections on the oncoming shortage of workforce, we expect a continuing fall in the youth unemployment rate, however just up to a certain point, as the structural imbalance in the market could cause that there will be a shortage of workers in some industries, but in the others the supply could still be extensive. Despite the lack of workers the unemployment rate of certain groups of youth (especially those with low levels of education) could still be proportionally high. An improved attitude of employers towards employment of the youth can be expected, as it could be an investment in future due to the oncoming lack of workforce.

Changes in education systems and the prolongation of education

The dynamics of changes in the fields of work and employment and a proportionally high youth unemployment rate in numerous European countries have contributed to the fact that in eighties and nineties in Europe, the questions on the efficiency of education systems and the responsiveness of the education systems to the changes in the labour market and worker demand have emerged.  In the last two decades, most of European states have carried out extensive reforms of their education systems, placing particular stress on the update of programmes, their broadening and opening up and creation of stronger links between the education system and the world of work. One of the main aims of the reforms of education systems is to increase the employability of the youth. An increasingly growing importance of knowledge (education) and competences in the labour market has also influenced the prolongation of education among the youth. On one hand, we are talking about the employment policies that encourage the youth not to leave the education or to continue it at the tertiary level in order to improve the educational structure of the population and to prevent structural imbalance in the labour market. On the other hand, this is due to the higher education wishes among the youth (and their parents), as a response to the fall of employment opportunities at the bottom of the youth labour market (above all of traditional worker occupations) and due to the expectation that a better or higher education could lead to a better position on the labour market.

Young people often choose to continue their education also to avoid probable unemployment during unfavourable economic conditions. All of the abovementioned criteria can be used to explain the exceptional increase of students in higher education and university programmes in Slovenia from the beginning of the nineties onward. The proportion of youth that are included in tertiary education (either full-time or part-time study, in which there is also a significant number of students) is growing rapidly: in 1991, the proportion of youth, aged 19 to 23, that are included in higher professional education and university undergraduate education, as compared to all persons in this age group, was 18.1 %, in 1998 34 %, in 2000 37.7 %, and in 2003 as much as 42.2 % (Verša, Spruk, 2004: 4).

Since the youth remain in education for a longer time and leave it in greater numbers only after obtaining a higher education, their working activity is decreased (between ages 15 and 24) and enter the labour market at a later time. At the same time the competition for vacancies among the well educated youth is arising, especially among the first-time job seekers, because of which highly educated youth also increasingly face unemployment (and/or accept jobs for which a lower education level is required than the one they have obtained). There is also the issue of structural discrepancies, that is (excessively) high supply in certain segments of the market (for certain industries) and too low supply in technical fields, fields of  technology and natural science, where the demand for workers has been high for quite some time.

Increasing flexibility in labour markets

The researchers have been for some time monitoring the changes in the patterns of  youth activities that are most obviously shown in the increased dynamics of transitions between education, unemployment and employment (in different sequences) and the increased flexibility of employment. Young people encounter a strongly changed structure of employment opportunities upon entering the labour market – above all with an increased supply of less secure employments, especially part-time and fixed-term employments. In Slovenia from the beginning of the 90's fixed-term employments have become particularly widespread (for some time they have been representing approximately three quarters of new employments), while part-time employments are still by far less common than in other EU countries. It seems that these less secure employments (temporary and part-time employments) are also the most perspective employments in terms of employment growth and decreased unemployment rate and at least partial participation of young individuals on the labour market.

One of the most pressing research issues is related to the consequences of flexible employment of youth, that is: does temporary and part-time employment lead the youth towards actual  (gradual) inclusion on the labour market (and is thus merely a prolonged transition from school into the world of work) or does it push them towards the margins of the labour market and thus lastingly differentiate the young generation from the older generations which hold better (more stable) working placements and are more protected (Hammer, 2003). We are thus dealing with the question whether temporary or other flexible forms of employment for youth represent a ticket towards more lasting employments or a new pattern of employment that will be with them throughout their active age. This question as of now remains unanswered. Together with the finding that the decrease of permanent, secure employments for youth is today a general tendency, we should stress that the employment opportunities in different fields of the market very much differ, but are mostly better for highly competent and specialized workforce. In some segments of the market in which there is a great demand for workers who are well educated (demand for young experts in computer science, programming, technological development, etc.), the youth can still find a good and permanent employment right away or very soon. Especially those young people who are not so well educated and trained have to face weaker employment opportunities, among which part-time and fixed-time employments predominate. The polarisation of employment opportunities and general shortage of good, permanent employments for the youth generally increase the insecurity during transitions from education to employment.

Regulations on employment and the attitude of employers towards employment of the youth

Inclusion of young people in employment depends on the effects of the market mechanisms, but is at the same time institutionalised with legal and collective regulations, cooperation between the employers, unions and the state. The latter can with the help of different measures regulate the transition from education into employment (e.g. regulations on education opportunities and transition between different forms of education, guiding educational decisions through scholarship policy, enabling combining of education and work) and stimulate employment of youth (e.g. co-financing of traineeships and different forms of obtaining working experience for the youth). The important role of social partners, especially employers, in easing the transition of youth into employment should be stressed. In the countries where the employers are significantly embedded into the education, training and transition easing systems (e.g. with apprenticeship, practical training, working experience placements, etc.) the youth unemployment rates are traditionally lower than in countries where the transition is left upon the individuals. The states with extensive involvement of social partners in the regulation of transitions of youth from education into the employment are for example Germany, Austria and the Netherlands, and these have the relatively low youth unemployment rates (in comparison with other EU states) or the rates are apparently lower than the unemployment rates for whole active population.

Besides systematic inclusion of employers into education and training and into ways of transition into employment, also their general attitude and commitment towards employment of the youth is important, which often also depends on incentives and actions of the employment policy. One of examples of good practice in this field is the Dutch campaign Youth Unemployment Task Force, which was offered to be reviewed and evaluated as a part of the international exchange of good practices in employment in EU states (the so-called peer review of this three-year campaign was held in April 2005 in the Hague, where also Slovenia participated). The main goal of the Youth Unemployment Task Force is to promote youth employment in the time of economic stagnation, through a combination of activities that are aimed towards activation of unemployed or inactive youth on one hand and employers on the other. The campaign that is conducted on the national, local/regional and sectoral level gives a great deal of attention to persuading and motivating employers to offer young people a chance of at least fixed-term employment, so that they can acquire working experience and develop a positive attitude towards work and employment. The stress is also placed on acceleration of youth employment in industries and on intensified job mediation (vacancies exchange, mediation between young jobseekers and employers).

The experience of several European states also show that the employment programmes and measures that are aimed at youth are most efficient when they are confined to local needs or when they suit local situations and are co-developed with linked and cooperating local role-players. Particularly important are the partnerships of local authorities (municipalities), public institutions and employers, but also non-governmental organizations and private initiatives.

Some factors that are specific to Slovenia

The prolongation of education is more pronounced in Slovenia, as is in some other new EU members, than in old EU member states. One of almost achieved goals of the National Programme of University Education of RS (2002) is to achieve an increase of the share of young generations in tertiary education by 2005, so that 50% of population will enrol in different forms of this education every year. Hereby we should warn of three facts as negative side effects of prolonging education of youth. The first is the very long duration of studies in Slovenia, or the comparably low efficiency and successfulness of studying. According to the longitudinal study (Bevc, 2002), of those who had enrolled into higher education in the 90's, within eight years only 50% have graduated, 6% are still studying and 44 % have dropped out of education. This is probably a consequence of organization of studies in Slovenia, the benefits linked to the student status and the fact that the students often perform various temporary and occasional jobs. Thus it is not surprising that one of the goals of the Bologna reform of higher education programmes is to shorten the studies, to make study programmes more focused and to change the organisation of the studies (fewer traditional lectures and more of individual and group work for students), in order to achieve better efficiency of studying and better employability of the youth after completed education.

The second problem related to the prolongation of studies is that the state could not raise interest in fields for which there is already a shortage of workers (similarly as in most of other EU states). The number of students (and graduates) of social and business sciences and law is thus increasing, while in the fields of technology, production technologies, construction, natural sciences, mathematics and computer science it has even dropped (Verša, Spruk, 2004: 5–6). This state can be contributed with the increasing unemployment rate of young graduates that is registered by the Employment Service of Slovenia, above all among graduates of social and business sciences, whose numbers cannot be absorbed by the labour market due to the high influx.

The third consequence of prolonged education is that the activity rate of youth (aged 15 to 24 years) in Slovenia has been decreasing for some time and is extremely low, despite the fact that the student labour market (occasional and temporary jobs offered through student employment services) is very strong. The youth enter this market, i.e. become a part of the workforce at an increasingly later time, which causes that the problem of the lack of working experience appears also among jobseekers aged above 25 and even 30. In 2003 the activity rate of the youth was thus 33.8% (among young women only 29%), which, comparatively, is one of the lowest rates in Europe. In 2002, when this rate was in Slovenia 36.6%, it was for example 56% in Austria, 50.4% in Germany, 68.6% in Denmark, 64% in Great Britain and even 73.7% in the Netherlands (Eurostat, 2003). But the low youth activity rate is characteristic for most of new EU members: in 2002 it was 30.9% in Lithuania, 34.4% in Hungary, 34.2% in Estonia and 37.8% in Poland. The problem of low youth activity rates and at the same time (like in Slovenia) low activity rates of those above 50 is a great share of inactive (maintained) population that is maintained by a relatively small segment of highly active population (category of people between 25 and 50).

Besides the side effects of the prolonged education, another factor of youth employment that is stressed in Slovenia is still quite stiff labour market which is mostly shown in labour relations. As the employment security of permanently employed (in spite of changes in the relevant legislation) is still very high, the companies who wish to have as flexible workforce as possible to lower their own risks, transfer the risk onto the youth (newly employed). This means that we can already notice a division of the market into two segments in Slovenia: the first segment with still very secure employments for those who are permanently employed and the second segment with more insecure, flexible employments for the youth (fixed-time, part-time jobs). Performance of temporary and flexible forms of employment for youth is often the waiting or test period for entering more lasting employment – that is an extensive period in which the company tests the adaptability, productivity, loyalty and other similar characteristics of employed youth. In 2003 as much as 75.9% of all new employments in Slovenia were fixed-term employments (ZRSZ, 2004: 26). The share of fixed-term employments among all employments in Slovenia in 2001 was 10.5%, and among youth (ages 15 – 24) 42.9% (Kanjuo - Mrčela and Ignjatović, 2004: 247), which is significantly higher than the average share of youth who are employed for a fixed term in EU states. Also among part-time employments (which are not very common in Slovenia) the data shows an increased share of youth. Thus, in 2003 there were 6.6% of workers with part-time contracts among all employed, and among employed youth this share was 13.7% (ZRSZ, 2004:41).

Another proof of the stiffness of labour market is student work. Because of the very liberal regulation of student work in Slovenia (no employment contract is necessary and thus these »employments« are not covered by the employment and labour relations legislation, neither are the students eligible to rights and protection that arise from employment) this is not only the cheapest form of work for employers (student work is not taxed as heavily as other forms of contractual work or employment), but also the form of employment that requires least commitment of employer towards workers. Relatively educated, flexible and cheap student workforce is in many views (unfair) competition to other groups of workers, especially to the less educated youth seeking permanent employment. The employers namely more and more frequently cover their needs for workers of the so-called secondary segment by taking on students, which can also affect youth unemployment, especially among less and medially educated youth who after school must unconditionally enter the labour market. At the same time, student work is rarely a chance for students to obtain suitable (professional) working experience, as it is mostly performed during unfavourable working hours or during weekends (e.g. jobs at big shopping centres, stores, restaurants and gas stations), is physically demanding (e.g. in production, moving companies) and so on. These jobs mostly do not ease the transition of youth into suitable employment after they have completed education. At the end we should warn of the characteristic element of youth unemployment in Slovenia; among youth, sex is far more important factor of probability of unemployment than among the whole population. Young women have for several years been considerably more often unemployed than their male counterparts. According to the data gathered with the Labour Force Survey, in 2004 the unemployment rate among the age group of 15 to 24 was 14.2%, of which the rate of unemployment among young women was 18% and "only" 11.2% among young men. This happened despite the fact that young women have better (higher) education than young men!

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