Young Workers, Globalization and the Labor Market: Comparing Early Working Life in Eleven Countries

Underpinned by the fact that the globalization process and the subsequent increased level of market uncertainty have paved the way for employment flexibility in modern societies, this book examines the labor market chances of young adults in the US and in ten European societies over the past three decades. As young adults represent a very vulnerable labor market group, flexible and insecure employment tends to be pronounced especially at labor market entry. The contributors therefore explore which groups of young adults are especially affected by increasing employment insecurities.

Extending analysis to the early career phase, the book discusses whether flexible employment relationships in younger cohorts are a temporary phenomenon at the very beginning of people's careers, or if the labor markets of modern societies are currently fundamentally changing because flexible employment relationships are permanently succeeding in the labor market with the entry of new cohorts.

Discussing the development of social inequality structures in an era of globalization, this book will be of interest to scholars and researchers focusing on international comparative research, globalization, labor markets, and social inequality.

Edited by Hans-Peter Blossfeld, Professor of Sociology, University of Bamberg, Sandra Buchholz, Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories, Bamberg, Germany, Erzsébet Bukodi, Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford, UK and Karin Kurz, Göttingen University, Germany