UNCERTAIN FUTURES - YOUNG-PEOPLE IN AND OUT OF EMPLOYMENT SINCE 1940

In Britain, the period between the end of World War II and the mid 197 0s witnessed an employment market which was relatively stable. Young p eople seeking entry into employment managed to do so with relative eas e. There was a demand for labour which exceeded the supply. This stabi lity allowed young people to be able to predict, to some extent, what sort of employment they were likely to attain. At one level it meant t hat the majority of young men could predict that they would become emp loyed on a full-time basis. At another level, young people were even s ocialised into expecting particular types of work, for example young w orking class boys expected to get jobs typically done by members of th e working class. Since the 1970s, however, the labour market has chang ed significantly. The extent to which young people can predict their f uture employment status has declined as the demand for full-time emplo yment has, in many instances, been overtaken by the supply of those lo oking for it. Many young people today are thus in a more uncertain pos ition. This uncertainty relates to how these young people will fare in the labour market: for young men, that of not becoming an established member of the full-time employed labour force; for young women, the u ncertainty relates to changes in forms of labour market participation, but also to a decline, or at least the deferring of leaving the labou r market to raise a family.