Effects of Workless Households on Gender and Ethnic Youth Transitions

The increase of workless households and, in particular, the consequences of having been raised in such households, has received particular attention in the UK. Previous research has shown that having been raised in a workless household can have negative impacts on a series of outcomes, such as higher probabilities of being NEET or unemployed or higher changes of spending longer periods out of work. However, little is known about how men and women and different ethnic groups differ in terms of this experience. This paper aims at filling in this gap.

According to data from the UKHLS (2011-2012) around 6% of individuals in the UK had workless parents when they were young. This figure, however, rises to 9% for younger cohorts (16-35 years old), and in particular, it goes up to values that vary between 12% and 54% for young non-white ethnic minorities. Using the third wave of the UKHLS, this study sheds light on the impact that having been raised in various family types, in particular workless families, has for young men and women and for the most numerous non-white ethnic minority groups.

Initial descriptive findings show that having workless parents (vs. two-working parents) seems to affect more negatively young women than men with regard to their employment probabilities. Variation is also found across ethnic minority groups: in particular, while the employment probabilities of the white British are lower if these had workless parents, for Indian men there seems to be no effect of the origin household.