Introduction

The imposition of austerity measures on global labour markets already severely damaged by economic crises is estimated to have increased global unemployment levels by 202 million, with 5.9 million jobs being lost in Europe since 2008 (O’Higgins, 2010; ILO, 2013). Young people have borne the brunt of a heavily depleted and debilitated European jobs market (Dicken, 2007; Carlson, 2013). In ‘liberal competitive’ employment and welfare settings such as the UK, this has been exacerbated by deterioration in working conditions and withdrawal of employment rights over the previous two decades (Hogarth, 2009; Kompier, 2009; Hurley, 2011; Kersbergen and Hemerijck, 2012). For young people at the margins of European labour markets the lived experiences of crises and austerity are often defined by personal despair, deterioration in mental and physical health and the perception of a hopeless future. In the UK these brutal realities have been documented in a major survey carried out by The Prince's Trust (2014). The survey found that more than ‘three quarters of a million young people between the age of 16–25 believe they have nothing to live for’, with 40% of young people suffering ‘devastating symptoms of mental illness’, including suicidal thoughts, self-loathing and panic attacks, as a direct result of unemployment. With nearly one million young people who are not in employment, education or training and 430,000 young people facing long-term unemployment, the situation is critical in the UK (The Prince's Trust Macquarie, 2014). These findings are echoed by The World of Work Report (ILO, 2012), which found that fiscal austerity and labour market reforms across Europe have had ‘devastating consequences’ for employment while mostly failing to cut deficits, and warned that governments risked fuelling unrest unless they combined tighter spending with job creation. Lower employment levels, higher unemployment, more marginally attached workers and growing levels of underemployment pervade the lived experiences of young people (between ages of 16 and 25) across a number of European societies (ILO, 2013; OECD, 2013). The combined impact of a labour market increasingly permeated by precarious, poorly paid, unstable jobs and reductions in public and welfare expenditures has exacerbated the levels of poverty and marginalisation endured by young people across a number of European societies.