Youth Unemployment and Marginalisation in Northern Europe

Abstract

This report presents the main results from a comparative research project funded by the European Commission, the Fourth Framework Programme, TSER, for the period 1997 to 1999. Hammer, Torild has co-ordinated the project. The report is based on different articles and reports, which have been written individually by the different research partners in the project. These are articles that have been submitted or are forthcoming in different international journals. They are based on the same data set and the same project. This way all the articles will be available together in a common report. The analyses are based on a new comparative data set in northern Euope. Representative samples (2000-4000 in each country) of unemployed youth (18-24 years) were drawn from the national unemployment register and interviewed 12 months later in Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark and Scotland. In Ireland, the research team used the ECHP data (European Community Household Panel) instead of the same age group in nine countries. The different articles explore the relationship between unemployment and marginalisation: gendered marginalisation, financial marginalisation and political marginalisation of unemployed youth. The articles also analyse the relationship between unemployment and different dimensions of social exclusion, mental health and social support. Moreover, two of the articles focus upon the transition from unemployment to employment and from unemplyment to education. Together, these articles should give a broad picture and new knowledge about youth unemployment in northern Europe. Contents Jan Carle: Method and research design. Ira Malmberg-Heimonen and Ilse Julkunen: Gender, family context and labour-market involvement in six Northern European Countries. Thordis J. Sigurdardottir and Thoroddur Bjarnason: Psychological distress among youth during unemployment and beyond. Hammer, Torild: The Probability of Re-entering Education among Unemployed Youth. A Comparative Study of Six Countries in Northern Europe. Jan Carle: Social and political activity among unemployed young people in six northern European countries. Hans Uldall-Poulsen: Differences between Unemployment Insurance Benefit Claimants and Social Assistance Benefit Claimants in Nordic Countries. Andy Furlong and Fred Cartmel: Does long-term youth unemployment lead to social and economic exclusion? Evidence from six European countries. Helen Russell and Philip J. Oö‚'Connell: Getting a Job in Europe: The Transition from Unemployment to Employment among Young People in Nine Eruopean Countries. Anne Hammarstrøm: Is unemployment correlated with ill health and drug use? A comparative analysis between six north European countries.