Economic analysis for a youth employment model

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What is the issue?

There is a pressing need to improve our knowledge of how the UK economy currently works for young people, and how their employment outcomes are affected by changes in the economy, policy interventions and external shocks.

The Youth Futures Foundation (‘Youth Futures’) seeks to understand how changes in the economy impact young people, including on their employment status, education and work choices, pay and conditions. An important aspect of this is exploring how different groups of young people might be differentially affected, with a particular focus on outcomes for young people from marginalised groups. This will contribute to Youth Futures’ scoping of an economic model of youth employment and their overarching aim of narrowing employment gaps between demographic groups.

How are we helping?

RAND Europe has been commissioned by Youth Futures to conduct research that will address knowledge gaps around young people in the UK labour market, to support Youth Futures’ modelling research agenda. We will carry out quick scoping studies of relevant economic and empirical evidence and complementary data analysis around four themes:

Wage determinants (including the impact of the minimum wage on labour supply and demand and the consequences for the public purse);
Sectoral analysis (including sectoral trends in youth employment over the last 30 years and how these differ geographically);
Worker heterogeneity (including an exploration of heterogeneity in employment outcomes for young people today as compared to previous cohorts based on identified dimensions of marginalisation, and heterogeneity in trajectories into work);
Economic crises (including how recent economic crises might have changed the UK economy for young workers, and how young people may have changed their employment and education decisions in response to these crises).