Comparative Analysis of Transitions from Education to Work in Europe The integration of young people into the labour market within the European Union: The role of institutional settings

In this paper we investigate to what extent the labour market integration of young people within the European Union is influenced by national institutional contexts of both the employment system and the education/training system. For this purpose, data of the 1992-1997 European Community Labour Force Surveys (ECLFS) were used. We looked at three important indicators that capture the (lack of) labour market integration of youngsters: the odds of being unemployed, the odds of having a temporary job and the odds of having a part-time job. To estimate systematic variation between countries, multilevel analysis was applied in which variation within countries between individuals and variation within countries between periods is statistically controlled for. The results of this analysis showed that the labour market integration of young people within the European Union is indeed systematically structured by national institutional contexts. With regard to national institutional factors concerning labour market regulation, it is primarily the employment protection of the existing labour force that has a damaging effect on the integration process of youngsters. In countries with less strict employment protection legislation, school-leavers find a (stable) labour market position more easily than in countries with highly strict employment protection legislation. With regard to institutional characteristics of education systems, it is clear that the presence of a dual system-as a workplace-based vocational training system-improves the transition from school to work in a country.