The quality of young Europeans’ employment: A dynamic perspective

The quality of employment is usually evaluated by considering various dimensions of people’s jobs: for example, the quality of earnings (both in absolute and relative terms), job security (type of contract or unemployment risk), education and training, work-life balance and gender equality, and the working environment (Burchell et al. 2014; OECD 2014). However, labour markets are increasingly characterised by workers moving frequently between jobs, combined with spells without work. Therefore, if we are interested in evaluating workers’ well-being, we need to develop new concepts of employment quality that capture individuals’ employment conditions over time, instead of at a single moment. In this study, we present a new definition of (objective) employment quality, based on various dimensions of individuals’ labour market experience over a two-year period. In particular, we consider four dimensions – employment security, income security, income success and a successful match between education and occupation.