Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic deepened the problems that youth were already experiencing in transition from school-to-work, in accessing high quality jobs or in succeeding to secure their position on the labour market. Youth are generally more exposed to the effects of crises, being more probable to work in services sector, in informal economy or under temporary contracts. The new entrants on the labour market during COVID-19 pandemic experienced joblessness and unemployment, as well as scarcer working conditions. As youth prospects on the labour market is not expected to improve significantly even after pandemic ends, is very important to understand how different experiences affected the youth well-being.

In this paper we aim to explore different vulnerabilities experienced by youth in relation to their jobs and employment prospects in Central and Eastern European countries. In order to reach this objective, we use the datasets of the series of surveys carried out by European Parliament on COVID-19 during the 2020. We employ exploratory techniques to analyse how changes in youth professional status during COVID pandemic vary in relation to level of education, employment status, perceived effectiveness of governmental decisions or national economic contexts. In the end we aim to profile different types and vulnerabilities that could be taken into account in the post-pandemic period in order to improve youth employability.

Acknowledgement:
This work has been supported by the NUCLEU program, funded by Ministry of Education and Research, under the project PN 19130302.

Keywords:

Youth employability, voulnerable youth, COVID-19 pandemic.