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Navigating an Uncertain Labor Market in the UK: The Role of Structure and Agency in the Transition from School to Work

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  • Ingrid Schoon

Abstract

This article reviews the evidence on young people in the UK making the transition from school to work in a changing socioeconomic climate. The review draws largely on evidence from national representative panels and follows the lives of different age cohorts. I show that there has been a trend toward increasingly uncertain and precarious employment opportunities for young people since the 1970s, as well as persisting inequalities in educational and occupational attainment. The joint role of social structure and human agency in shaping youth transitions is discussed. I argue that current UK policies have forgotten about half of the population of young people who do not go to university, by not providing viable pathways and leaving more and more young people excluded from good jobs and employment prospects. Recommendations are made for policies aimed at supporting the vulnerable and at provision of career options for those not engaged in higher education.

Suggested Citation

  • Ingrid Schoon, 2020. "Navigating an Uncertain Labor Market in the UK: The Role of Structure and Agency in the Transition from School to Work," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 688(1), pages 77-92, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:688:y:2020:i:1:p:77-92
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716220905569
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Steve Machin & Anna Vignoles, 2004. "Educational inequality: the widening socio-economic gap," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 25(2), pages 107-128, June.
    2. Gregg, Paul & Tominey, Emma, 2005. "The wage scar from male youth unemployment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 487-509, August.
    3. Maarten Goos & Alan Manning, 2007. "Lousy and Lovely Jobs: The Rising Polarization of Work in Britain," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(1), pages 118-133, February.
    4. Schoon, Ingrid & Heckhausen, Jutta, 2019. "Conceptualizing Individual Agency in the Transition from School to Work: A Social-Ecological Developmental Perspective," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 4(2), pages 135-148.
    5. Duckworth, Kathryn & Schoon, Ingrid, 2012. "Beating the Odds: Exploring the Impact of Social Risk on Young People's School-to-Work Transitions during Recession in the UK," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 222, pages 38-51, October.
    6. Lyons-Amos, Mark & Schoon, Ingrid, 2018. "Differential responses in first birth behaviour to economic recession in the United Kingdom," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 50(2), pages 275-290.
    7. Kathryn Duckworth & Ingrid Schoon, 2012. "Beating the Odds: Exploring the Impact of Social Risk on Young People's School-to-Work Transitions during Recession in the UK," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 222(1), pages 38-51, October.
    8. David N. F. Bell & David G. Blanchflower, 2011. "Young people and the Great Recession," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 27(2), pages 241-267.
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    Cited by:

    1. Luyang Guo, 2025. "Unsettled horizon: adolescents’ career expectations in the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous contexts," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-11, December.

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