Unemployed Youth: A Lost Generation?

Based on a two-wave panel survey (1984 and 1986) of Dutch unemployed youngsters, we addressed the following questions: Do value orientations and well-being change with the duration of unemployment? Which characteristics determine the length of the unemployment spell? We found that there is hardly any change in value orientations; that there is a change in well-being at the beginning of the unemployment period and just a little deterioration after that. With regard to the second question the results of the duration analyses showed that there is a great effect of the unemployment duration on re-employment probability. Education is another important factor. Interpreting these findings it should be kept in mind, however, that only 30 per cent of the unemployed youngsters had found a stable job after two years. About 35 per cent had a career pattern characterised by temporary jobs.