Children and Dual Worklessness in Europe: A Comparison of Nine Countries

Parental worklessness and the experience of NEET among their offspring. Evidence from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE)

“…For example, single adult households are far more likely to be workless than households with two adults (both with and without children), and workless households are significantly more likely to experience poverty than households in which at least one adult is employed (ONS, 2011). Comparing poverty rates of children in jobless households in Europe, Harkonen (2011) found that in the UK and Ireland these were higher than the average in other countries, reaching above 50%. Furthermore, disability strongly affects work rates (Berthoud, 2011), and worklessness is more prevalent in urban areas and the North of England (Webster, 2000).…”

“…As adults, children growing up in poor or workless households are more likely to be workless or poor themselves, as compared to children who grow up in households where someone is employed (Gregg, Harkness & Machin, 1999;Such & Walker, 2002). Likewise, evidence on the experiences of children growing up in workless households across Europe suggests that parents' labour market status strongly predicts children's economic well-being, and that children living in households with no employed adults are particularly vulnerable to the experience of income poverty (Harkonen, 2011).…”

“…With rising unemployment rates there is now increasing concern about generations of families who have never worked (Coelli, Green, & Warburton, 2007;Ermisch et al, 2004;Gregg & Wadsworth, 2008;Harkonen, 2011;Pemberton, 2008;Platt, 2010) and about the potential scarring effects of household worklessness on the future labour market experiences of contemporary children (Macmillan, 2010;. The United Kingdom has an above average proportion of adults living in workless households compared to the European Union, and also a higher proportion of dependent children living in workless households (European Commission, 2014).…”

Persistent joblessness and fertility intentions

“…Given our data, the spells of joblessness cannot distinguish whether the individual exited employment voluntarily or not, neither whether s/he is searching for a job. Nonetheless, couple level joblessness has been suggested to matter more than couple level unemployment to study the consequences of a couple economic fragile situation on fertility (Härkönen 2011). Many of the social and demographic consequences of economic inactivity are the same as those of unemployment because the key point is whether a person is employed or not, not whether a person is looking for work.…”

Exploring the Lived Experiences of Seasonally Unemployed Parents in the Gouda Area

“…However, if children continuously experience lack with regards to basic needs and relational health, then an increase of risks is likely (Van Schalkwyk & Wissing, 2010). Moreover, most children who are living in unemployed households are particularly vulnerable to neglect and abuse, as a result of their parents' (or primary caregivers') regular experiences of distress and high levels of frustration (Härkönen, 2011). These issuesassociated with the negative psychological effects of unemploymenthave been well documented in the past (Creed & Watson, 2003;Kinicki, McKee-Ryan, Song & Wanberg, 2005;Couchenour & Chrisman, 2014).…”