Individual strategies and job chances--a comparative perspective

One of the prevailing features of the reorganization of the welfare state is a larger emphasis on the role of private actors. Moreover, there is a clear shift away from social rights towards obligations, incentives and sanctions. The empirical evidence of what kind of behaviour or strategy that leads to employment is, however, contradictory and seems largely to be based on data from different countries with different causal configurations. This comparative study seeks to analyse the relationship between different forms of individual strategies and chances of re-employment among young unemployed people in six Northern European countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Scotland and Sweden. It shows that young people experience different contexts and that the influence of individual strategies on re-employment prospects is highly structured by economical and societal constraints. Hence, it is important to look beyond individual performance and acknowledge the structural factors which exclude people from being included in the labour market.