Work-study Conflict or Facilitation? Time Use Tradeoffs among Employed Students

This chapter analyses the precariousness of youth employment in European Union (EU) countries. The Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) sector, among others, is of utmost importance due to its employment capacity, but includes a considerable amount of low skilled and precarious jobs, frequently occupied by highly educated young people. The term flexibility’ is used in much of the current literature in English to refer to the various kinds of transformations taking place in the world of work and employment. The standard employment model is used as the benchmark for these definitions. Thus the theoretical debate on precarious employment affecting young people is part of the professional transition concept. The expansion of precarious employment becomes a fundamental instrument for the management of workers’ mobility. A structural analysis was made based on the temporary employment rate which articulated an intra-and inter-country comparison. The structural analysis was complemented by the segmentation of temporary youth employment per qualification level.