Abstract
This chapter addresses the process of transition from education to work, a central transformation theme in the field of youth studies, one that has contributed significantly to the constitution of a new adulthood. Analysing Life Patterns data from the two cohorts, it contributes to an emerging consensus that higher education no longer provides protection against unemployment, underemployment and precarious employment. Focussing on three decades from 1991, the analysis demonstrates how the distinctive social and economic conditions of these decades have impacted on the educational and employment outcomes of two cohorts of participants in the Life Patterns research program. Both cohorts experienced volatile economic conditions during the first few years after they left secondary school. Australia experienced an economic downturn shortly after cohort 1 completed secondary school in 1991 and then enjoyed 15 years of economic growth until the 2008 Global Financial Crisis just after cohort 2 left school in 2006. Although Australia technically avoided a recession in 2008–09, unemployment and underemployment rates for young people increased substantially, and have continued to increase, creating new inequalities. These developments destabilise the longstanding policy assumption that higher education provides protection against unemployment, underemployment and precarious employment. Examining how the experiences of new labour market entrants in the early 1990s differed from those of new labour market entrants in the late 2000s, this chapter compares levels of education and employment at two time points: 5 years after leaving secondary school; and 10 years after leaving secondary school. The chapter concludes that the presumed nexus between education and work that has driven scholarly work on young people’s lives is relatively weak and can no longer carry the burden of hope held by young people and their families.
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Chesters, J. (2020). The Disintegrating Education-Work Nexus. In: Wyn, J., Cahill, H., Woodman, D., Cuervo, H., Leccardi, C., Chesters, J. (eds) Youth and the New Adulthood. Perspectives on Children and Young People, vol 8. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3365-5_4
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