In writing this book, I increasingly became aware of the extent to which much of the finest social science research has been devoted to the issue of unemployment. Unemployment rightly is a key issue in the social sciences for search of social and political answers to the economic, social and psychological distress caused by un certainty and macroeconomic change. I was glad to find my own worries shared by eminent and respected scholars: George Akerlof once confessed to pursue the study of unemployment ultimately because of his father's distress from fear of un employment, and Wout Ultee started research on unemployment from the consid eration that parents' talk about unemployment risks should not come to dominate marriage parties or other family occasions. The problem of unemployment is thus hardly confmed to actual loss of income, but one where economic insecurity be gins to undermine the very fabric of society. In consequence, to combat unem ployment should indeed be a foremost issue in societies striving for freedom and justice for their citizenry, yet to succeed obviously requires an understanding of the underlying economic realities. If this study could contribute to this endeavor, all the time spent in writing would seem well spent indeed. Against the significant body of existing social science research on unemploy ment, it seems appropriate to be clear about the scope and limitations of the cur rent study, however.

Young people are a vulnerable category of workers, finding themselves in a delicate phase of their working life: their first entry into the labour market. In many European countries, youngsters are unemployed or have difficulty finding and obtaining jobs. This situation has deteriorated particularly after the crises, recessions and stagnation that has impacted European economies in recent years. In addition to the cyclical or crisis impact, structural factors are also very important. Additionally, prolonged crises, as in some Eurozone countries, have transformed a significant part of cyclical unemployment in structural (long term) unemployment. Young People and the Labour Market: A Comparative Perspective explores the condition of young people in the labour market. The authors present new evidence from several countries, with a special focus on Europe, and offer a comparative perspective. They investigate questions such as which structural conditions and labour market institutions guarantee better youth performance, which education systems and school-to-work processes are more effective and in which countries is gender differentiation less of an issue. All of the aforementioned, as well as many other comparisons which the authors make, are significant in helping to facilitate the successful design of labour and education policies. As the first investigation by economists to explore the complexity of this topic, this book will be useful to both economists and sociologists who are interested in the role of young people in the labour market, and the problem of youth unemployment.

Jan Brülle shows how poverty risks in Germany between 1992 and 2012 increased concentrated on those with low educational levels, in lower occupational positions, and with precarious employment careers, as the country’s welfare state failed to adapt to widening inequalities in households’ market incomes. Contrasting the German experience with Great Britain, where social transfers to low-income families in concert with favourable labour market conditions helped to reduce poverty between 1992 and the global financial crisis, he presents the most comprehensive comparative study on poverty trends in these two countries to date. Moving beyond a cross-sectional perspective on poverty, the author analyses why it became not only more frequent in Germany, but also more persistent in individual life-courses, and why faster exits have driven the decline in poverty in Great Britain.

Volume 20 of "Research in Social Stratification and Mobility" continues to remain at the forefront of the diverse group of social scientists who study social inequality and is now the official publication of the Social Stratification Research Group of the International Sociological Association (RC-28). This issue features a comprehensive retrospective on the 40 years of contributions to social stratification research made by the late William Sewell and the Wisconsin Longitudinal Survey, including an all-inclusive bibliography of publications. Other contributions address the growing differences between workers with full-time jobs and various categories of the underemployed (in Israel, the United States and Germany), social mobility in Korea and Sweden, subjective responses to social inequality and the social consequences of status inconsistency, and analyses of class consciousness and growing wealth inequality in the OECD.

This open access book examines the economic, social, and psychological consequences of manufacturing plant closure at the individual level. Using an original data set of over 1,200 workers from Switzerland who lost their manufacturing jobs after the financial crisis of 2008, the author analyzes the determinants of reemployment, the sector of reemployment, and the change in wages over a two year period. In addition, coverage also explores how plant closure affects the social relationship between a displaced worker and his or her significant other, which includes a discussion of the coping strategies on the household level as well as how changes in a worker's social and occupational life affects overall satisfaction. Readers will discover that the burden of structural change disproportionately falls on the shoulders of workers aged 55 and older who often face substantial barriers when trying to return to employment. A larger portion of this group experience long-term unemployment and those who do manage to find a new job often suffer disproportionate wage loss. This result is intriguing in the context of the current demographic change and contradicts the common assumption that young and low-qualified individuals are at greatest risk of unemployment. Advanced age—and not low education—appears to be the primary obstacle to workers finding job satisfaction after being laid off because of market conditions.

This comprehensive handbook provides an overview of key theoretical perspectives, concepts, and methodological approaches that, while applied to diverse phenomena, are united in their general approach to the study of lives across age phases. In surveying the wide terrain of life course studies with dual emphases on theory and empirical research, this important reference work presents probative concepts and methods and identifies promising avenues for future research.

This book includes a wide selection of papers presented at the 50th Scientific Meeting of the Italian Statistical Society (SIS2021), held virtually on 21-25 June 2021. It covers a wide variety of subjects ranging from methodological and theoretical contributions to applied works and case studies, giving an excellent overview of the interests of the Italian statisticians and their international collaborations. Intended for researchers interested in theoretical and empirical issues, this volume provides interesting starting points for further research.