Low Skill Youth and the Social Investment Society

Despite significant improvements in educational attainment over the twentieth-century, youths (and increasingly boys) in many countries are dropping out of school in greater numbers and, in many cases, are also failing to find jobs.  This paper explores the determinants of cross-national variations in levels, employment status, and gender of low-skill youth.  We consider the implications of this rising generational isolation and inequality for the social investment state.  

First, deindustrialization and the rise of the information society have led to the evaporation of medium-skill jobs and the failure of vocational training institutions to meet the needs of low-skill workers.  Globalization, increased immigration, the instincts of unions to protect insiders over outsiders, and rising inequality also play a role in these explanations.  Another set of explanations locate blame in educational failure – inadequate, unprofessional schools, underpaid teachers, or school reforms that marginalize low-end students and/or boys.  A third set of explanations explore countries’ institutional capacities to address emergent social problems, related to their industrial relations, party systems, and other structures for political negotiation.  The paper touches on broad concerns about the growing tension between the goals of sustaining adequate social investment and protecting those left behind in the race for global competition.  We consider the impacts of growing generational dualism on the reproduction of human capital, inequality, social solidarity, and shifting gender relations.