Part-Time Employment and Aesthetic Labor Among Middle-Class Youth

This chapter addresses work experience from the perspective of the young people themselves so as to capture varied lived experiences of youth employment and unemployment. Research to date has provided an incomplete picture of youth unemployment, failing to focus on part-time work. For youth, part-time jobs are becoming scarce and more difficult to locate. With the economic recession, not only are employers in the retail and service sector less likely to hire but young people find themselves in competition with unemployed older workers and immigrant workers, rendering these jobs more competitive than ever before. Moreover, with the rise in youth unemployment and with recently intensifying aesthetic labor requirements, young people do not have the same extent of opportunities for interacting with diverse groups of workers from a range of backgrounds, including those who have been socially and economically disadvantaged.