Youth unemployment--individual and societal consequences, and new research approaches

The social effects of youth unemployment must be described in connection with the special unemployment situations which this condition implies for youths. Periods of joblessness are in general short and alternate with job programmes or educational programmes, a situation which can be characterised as a 'permanent impermanence'. Unemployment must also be seen in light of its occurrence during a central stage of a youth's development. The social effects are primarily of three kinds: those limited to the individual welfare, those concerning the individual's connection to his group and those concerning the individual's relationship with society. The first mentioned is most commonly expressed psychosomatically or socio-medically, the second socio-psychologically and the third socio-culturally or societally.