Youth Long-Term Unemployment and Its Social Consequences in Italy: 'In a World That Does Not Belong to Me' (original) (raw)
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'Insecure' jobs and alternating between periods of unemployment and periods of employment under fixed-term contracts are increasingly widespread among the youth in Europe. This phenomenon is an important risk factor for young people's well-being. Despite the growing number of studies, some issues have still not been adequately addressed. Compared to the high number of quantitative studies, the number of qualitative researches is limited: in fact, few studies have tackled this topic from a qualitative standpoint, highlighting the dynamics and the subjective processes which operate in this relationship and considering the different functions that work can have for the individual. Another aspect that has not been adequately dealt with is represented by the coping strategies that young people put in place to deal with job insecurity, and which have consequences on their well-being. The present article on the Italian case is intended to give a contribution in these directions. In particular, it analyses the way in which a group of 40 unemployed or temporarily employed young people, in-depth interviewed, subjectively describe the relationship between job insecurity and well-being, and reflects on coping strategies to face job insecurity and related perceived consequences. In doing this, the authors consider the role of individual factors, as well as of meso and macro ones, given that-for example-the national contexts have a role in influencing the way in which job insecurity is perceived and managed by individuals. The results highlight the complexity of this relationship, in which the intertwining of factors at different levels plays a very important role in determining the coping strategies and the overall well-being of people: individually, like the functions and the subjective meanings of work for the youth, but also in meso and macro terms, such as the familial support and relationships, and the institutional and public resources available.
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In Italy, the economic crisis of the last years has been characterized by recession, deflation, and unemployment. In addition to its broader effect on society, the crisis has deeply affected Italians’ everyday practices, their views, and their future goals. This is particularly true for young people, who can no longer rely on rising expectations. The paper presents the preliminary results of a qualitative study aimed at understanding how young people perceive and handle their everyday life in a social and working context so heavily influenced by income uncertainty, job insecurity, and a general lack of confidence in the future. Face-to-face in-depth interviews have been conducted in the metropolitan area of Milan (Italy). Keywords: economic crisis; young people; everyday practices.
Journal of Urban and Regional Analysis, 2021
The spread of the NEET (young people not in education, employment and training) phenomenon in Italy is largely due to the recession that has exacerbated the structural problems of the labor market, worsening job opportunities and contractual conditions, particularly for young people. We analyze how the level of youth unemployment (YUR) influences the number of young NEETs, both as a direct cause and through the risk of discouraging young people, considering the endogeneity issue. We also analyze the role of YUR and other control variables characterizing the youth condition on the social exclusion rate, since the NEET status is comparable to a form of social exclusion. More information comes from the comparison between two divergent macro-areas: the wealthy Center-North and the less developed South of Italy. The results show that the causes of the two phenomena are different in the years of recession. YUR has a predominant effect on NEET, particularly in the less developed area.