Flexible Labour? The Growth of Student Employment in the UK

Abstract

The transition from school to work in the UK has undergone dramatic change since the 1970s and the labour market that young people are entering is now significantly different to that faced by previous generations. While securing employment has always proven difficult for unqualified youth, they are particularly disadvantaged in today's labour market. In place of full-time employment, young people are being confronted with different forms of flexible employment. However, the growth in the demand for flexible labour has benefited young people engaged in full-time education who have over the 1990s increasingly combined study and work. Interviews with senior management in the retail grocery sector suggest that the availability of student labour has enabled them to maintain a high-quality labour force while pursuing flexible work practices. This illustrates the heterogeneous nature of the youth labour market and the need to make clear distinctions between those young people who are just in the labour market and those who are combining education and employment. Importantly, the growth in student employment emphasises the need to consider students as a significant segment of both the youth and general labour market.

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