The proportion of UK graduates who found work straight out of university fell by nearly 30% between those born in the late 70s to those a decade younger, finds a new study led by a UCL researcher.
Additionally, people born in the late 1980s who did not attend university were almost twice as likely to experience a turbulent start to their working lives, characterised by periods of unemployment, part-time employment, and inactivity, compared to those born in the 70s.
Published today in Population, Space and Place, the study by UCL and University of Liverpool authors used Understanding Society data from The UK Household Longitudinal Study and the British Household Panel Survey to analyse the school to work trajectories of 1,860 people in three birth cohorts – those born in 1974-1979, 1980-1984 and 1985-1990 – across 10 years after they completed school, between the ages of 16-26.
The study found that the younger cohort (born 1985-1990) experienced more complex and unstable transitions into the world of work, even among those who ended up having successful careers, reflecting increased uncertainty in the labour market and the rise of ‘patchwork careers’.
