Youth unemployment: a review of the literature

This paper sets out to review the studies on youth unemployment conducted in a range of English speaking countries: America, Australia and Great Britain. The studies have been divided into six sections: psychological adjustment, attributions and expectations, education about unemployment, job choice and work experience, values, and job interview training. The paucity of good studies in this area partly explains the lack of clear replicated findings or coherent theories for the causes, correlates and consequences of unemployment among young people, though this is an area of relevance to social policy. Furthermore, it was concluded that various factors such as individual differences, salient demographic variables and previous work experience have been neglected. Nevertheless, many of the studies seem to indicate the presence of a destructive vicious circle which young people experience when failing to get a job: stress and disappointment, leading to lowered self-esteem, a change in expectations, and minor psychiatric illnesses which handicap the job search and application process so making unemployment all the more likely.