Flexible working and precariousness

This concluding chapter discusses work flexibility and security for young people. The balance of flexibility and security for labour market participants is a perennial challenge for policy-makers. Young people tend to accumulate negative flexibility outcomes in that they have more limited contractual security, and a greater risk of working on non-standard contracts and of losing their jobs more quickly than the comparable adult population. At the same time, young people also have less job and income security because of their lower seniority and more limited employment histories. Moreover, in most European countries, workers on non-standard contracts have more limited access to unemployment benefits than workers on standard employment contracts. These are all factors that can exacerbate the position of vulnerable labour market groups, which are often disproportionally engaged on such contracts — young people, women, and people with lower education levels. The crisis exacerbated the risks of these negative outcomes.