The increasing precariousness of young people’s career paths. An analysis integrating life course and generational perspectives

Abstract

This article analyses the increasingly precarious working conditions of young people. The working trajectories of two cohorts are studied using sequence analysis. Life course perspective and cohort comparison are combined for a sub-sample of residents in the city of Barcelona in 2016 from the Spanish Continuous Sample of Working Lives. The results indicate that the youngest cohort, which entered the labour market around the Great Recession of 2008, suffer greater job precariousness in comparison to the previous generation. In particular, women of the youngest cohort face a double gap, both in comparison to their male peers and to the women of the previous generation.