Abstract
Globalization is said to generate ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ in the labour market. Youth on Globalized Labour Markets extends this debate by claiming that, in Europe, certain changes in the character of the employment contract, employment protection and the welfare state, linked to globalization, have skewed the distribution of uncertainty across the life-course in a way that disproportionately affects youth. The main consequence is that transitions to adulthood are increasingly delayed, with negative repercussions for family formation and labour market integration.
Despite increasing labour market uncertainty, and although the situation of youth in the labour market is in some ways universal, the consensus of the book is that we are not seeing clear convergence toward a global norm in the organization of the life-course. The manner in which macro-level economic, demographic and institutional developments translate into micro-level decisions, perceptions and objective outcomes is exceedingly complex and often surprising, making any generalizations about the effect of globalization or institutional regime dangerous.
According to Hofacker and Blossfeld, globalization has increased uncertainty in the labour market via (1) the transnationalization of markets and domestic structures, (2) the intensification of competition, (3) the spread of transnational networks of people and firms, and (4) the rise in the importance of markets and their dependence on random shocks. This uncertainty is concentrated among youth because youth are more vulnerable in the labour market to begin with. Youth face greater challenges in the labour market because they are (1) in the position of newcomer to key ‘adult’ institutions, and (2) they lack the necessary resources to use or shape those institutions advantageously. The level of disadvantage attached to newcomer status, or the degree to which uncertainty is ‘channelled’ toward youth, is a matter of (1) the degree to which the educational system and labour market are stratified, and the connection between the two standardized, and (2) the degree to which non-market supports are oriented toward ameliorating the challenges faced by youth.
This rich and varied collection of articles is notable for its nuanced and thorough discussion of uncertainty and its repercussions, particularly in the work of Ellen Ebralidze and Mieke Jansen. Ebralidze finds that although perceptions of insecurity reflect institutional differences at the national level, few youth are eligible for, or want to rely on non-market supports, meaning that the generosity of unemployment support has little effect on levels of job loss worry among youth. Job loss worry seems to depend more on whether employment protection is universally minimal or stratified. This observation finds its most extreme support in Italy, where the division of the labour market into ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’ on the basis of the permanence of work means that many youth rely on parental financial support well into their 30s (Bertolini), with negative consequences for inequalities in access to higher education (Goglio). Despite issues with equal access and participation, education reduces the labour market insecurities associated with age, although this varies by ethnicity and immigrant status (Zdrojewski). In Austria, job loss worry is in fact primarily a matter of educational qualification, rather than age, due in part to Austria’s ‘dual system’ of education (Bacher and Nemella).
The adequacy of childcare support is another major factor shaping the dynamic of youth labour market participation. The decline in support for childcare is perhaps felt most acutely in ‘post-socialist’ countries. After the dismantling of Soviet-era pro-natalist policies in the wake of the transition to a market economy, Estonia’s fertility rate dropped 40 per cent (Begall). Changes in the opportunity costs of bringing-up children due to higher returns to education and an expanded market for consumer goods have increased the heterogeneity of early employment and family careers of young women in Poland (Baranowska). However, while the employment penalties for bringing-up children in the Czech Republic are the worst in the EU, patterns of occupational mobility among Czech youth have displayed more stability than change (Katrnak et al.). Uncertainty seems to be rising among youth, and among some more than others, and without appropriate policy responses will lead to an increase in levels of social inequality (Paskov) and perceptions of social exclusion (Popp and Schels).
One shortcoming of the book is that globalization is never subjected directly to empirical analysis, and, as such, the reader must largely take its influence for granted or look elsewhere for a more thorough assurance of its relevance. This does not affect the value of the book to scholars of the life-course, but should serve as a fair warning to more agnostic scholars of globalization. While the book succeeds in showing the various ways in which uncertainty is channelled toward or concentrated among youth, the relationship between what causes uncertainty (globalization) and what channels that uncertainty toward youth (institutional arrangements) is not clear. We know that in some cases globalization is linked to greater uncertainty, but to what degree can globalization be implicated in the distribution of that uncertainty? Is it the case that globalization is a relevant cause of uncertainty among youth in all European nations? Or may the effect of globalization vary to the extent of irrelevance, given the intervening influence of regional or national institutions? Hofacker and Blossfeld, in their introductory account of globalization, do not address these questions.
The question of whether youth labour market uncertainty and its causes are, in an important sense, global phenomena is unresolved. However, the book does not leave the reader with any doubt that youth and other newcomers to the labour market bear a disproportionate share of that uncertainty. Youth on Globalized Labour Markets is, overall, a delight to read and highly recommended to anyone interested in how economic change is reconfiguring pathways to adulthood and the institutions that structure them.