Introduction

YUSEDER

The YUSEDER research project – ‘Youth Unemployment and Social Exclusion: Objective Dimensions, Subjective Experiences, and Innovative Institutional Responses in Six European Countries’ – tries to answer some crucial questions with regard to the risk of social exclusion associated with long-term youth unemployment. It asks for key mechanisms linking the experience of long-term youth unemployment to various dimensions of social disintegration, conceived of within the theoretical framework of social exclusion, to be put in place. In this context, not only the mechanisms exacerbating the stress of unemployment (vulnerability factors) but also the protective mechanisms preventing or reducing the risk of social exclusion have been taken into consideration. These analyses have been undertaken in three Northern European countries (Sweden, Belgium, Germany) and three Southern European countries (Spain, Italy, Greece).

The research project consisted, first, in a secondary analysis of long-term youth unemployment, social exclusion and health patterns; second, in qualitative interviews with 50 long-term unemployed young people in each country with regard to variables leading into long-term unemployment and the main factors contributing to social exclusion or inclusion; and third, in the analysis of innovative institutional responses on a local, regional and national level in various social sectors that aim to counteract the risk of social exclusion as a consequence of long-term unemployment (Kieselbach et al, 2000a, 2000b, 2001). This chapter concentrates on the qualitative part of the study concerned with the key mechanisms linking social exclusion with youth unemployment.

Development of youth unemployment

In the past 25 years, increasing rates of unemployment have been observed in all countries of the EU. This development has been deeply influenced by the worldwide economic crisis of the mid-1970s (the oil crisis) and the early 1980s. During this period, a considerable level of structural unemployment had been reached in most European countries. In the meantime, increasing globalisation, flexibilisation and worldwide economic competition have been important factors influencing the rise of unemployment rates.

In all partner countries, the extent of youth unemployment is significantly higher than the total unemployment rates with the exception of Germany, where, due to the dual education system and associated longer periods of training, the rates of young unemployed are similar to those of the adult unemployed (see Figure 3.1). However, the German labour market is characterised by a large disparity between West and East German youth.