The Transitions of Young Workers in the UK Labour Market: Consequences for Careers, Earnings, Health and Wellbeing.

This project will investigate the ability of younger workers living in the UK to make successful transitions in the labour market and the barriers that might prevent them from making progress in their careers. The motivating questions for the research are 'how do the labour market transitions of younger workers affect their employment prospects, physical health and mental wellbeing at subsequent stages of their life course?' and 'how can the likelihood of positive, empowering transitions for younger workers be increased?'. The pertinence of these questions has recently been further underscored by the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young workers, although the difficulties that many young workers face in progressing in the labour market are long-standing.

The concept of 'transitions', which has been influential in European labour market debates (Schmid, 2008; Salais et al., 2011), refers to work-related movements that workers might make during their life course (e.g. changing jobs, retiring). Research relating to younger workers has tended to focus on two types of transition: firstly, initial transitions from education into the labour market; and secondly, the ability of young people who are not in employment, education or training (NEET) to transition into work. Although these transitions are important to our project, its main focus will be on subsequent (and under-researched) transitions made by younger workers, including transitions between jobs, within jobs, and between lower quality and higher quality jobs. The project will also examine the consequences of early labour market experiences for workers' careers, earnings and physical and mental health during their life course, barriers and enablers of employment progression (e.g. to better jobs), and the consequences of young workers' transitions for the employment of other family members. These are issues that have received little attention to date.

The project will examine differences in the ability of younger workers to progress within the labour market and within their careers, comparing people who differ in respect of gender, race, ethnicity and disability and thereby enhancing understanding of diversity in labour market experiences and outcomes. In order to analyse the short and long-term consequences of positive (e.g. to a better job) and negative (e.g. from employment to unemployment) transitions we will draw on longitudinal datasets that cover substantial timespans. The project will also connect young workers' experiences to where they live in the UK through survey data and through a detailed qualitative investigation of young workers' lived experiences of transitions in two city-regions in England - Greater Manchester and Sheffield City Region.

In addition to making substantial contributions to academic knowledge and debates relating to younger workers, career progression and work-related health and wellbeing, the project will involve regular knowledge exchanges with national and local policymakers, practitioner bodies and other stakeholders and will lead to the co-production of resources to address barriers to progression and support young workers' transitions.