From Education to the Labor Market in Lithuania: The Role of Youth and Parental Education

• Date: 01 March 2020
• DOI: 10.1177/0002716220908254
• Published date: 01 March 2020

ANNALS, AAPSS, 688, March 2020 155

DOI: 10.1177/0002716220908254

From

Education to

the Labor

Market in

Lithuania: The

Role of

Youth and

Parental

Education

By

RUTA BRAZIENE

908254ANN The Annals of the American AcademyFrom Education to the Labor Market in Lithuania

research-article2020

This article examines how the education of youth and

parents influences the transition of youth from school-

ing to the labor market. I use a representative survey of

youth aged 16 to 29 (N = 1,590) in Lithuania in 2013

to create an analysis that yields estimates of the influ-

ence of family education on factors such as youth

employment, obstacles to finding a first job, and diffi-

culties in the first job. My hypothesis that youth from

families with less education have greater difficulties in

the labor market transition was confirmed. My hypoth-

esis that the higher the parents’ education, the easier it

is for young people to adapt in the first workplace was

also confirmed. Results also reveal that lower parental

education means that their children lacked general

workplace competencies, had less-decent working con-

ditions, and faced other difficulties in the labor market.

Keywords: youth; labor market; role of education;

youth transition; school-to-work transition

Shifting labor markets and prolonged educa-

tion have destabilized youth transitions

from education to the labor market. Economic

globalization and social transformation have

resulted in increased uncertainty about the

future of young people in the labor market

(Blossfeld et al. 2005). Social change has

affected all young people, but there are consid-

erable variations across countries, reflecting

differences in education and employment sys-

tems, as well as differences in preferences and

cultural norms (Schoon and Lyons-Amos 2016).

In many European countries, the question

of whether youth can successfully transition

from education to the labor market has been a

Correspondence: ruta.braziene@dsti.lt

Ruta Braziene is chief researcher at the Lithuanian

Research Centre, Labour Market Research Institute.

She is an expert in the fields of labor market and

employment policies, labor market participation, and

employment of different groups (youth, women, elderly,

and the disabled).

156 THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY

central concern. Expansion of higher education and skill-based technological

progress have changed the youth labor market, and the school-to-work transition

has become more complex as clear and normative linear life trajectories no

longer characterize young people’s movement through education, work, and per-

sonal relationships (European Group for Integrated Social Research [EGRIS]

2001). Young people spend more time in education than previous generations,

and the school-to-work period in which individuals settle into the labor market

takes relatively longer.

Lithuania presents an interesting case study of youth transitions because of the

profound social, economic, and political changes that have taken place in the

country during the last decades. After regaining independence in the 1990s,

there was a complete restructuring of the educational system and the labor mar-

ket in Lithuania. The last decade in the country has been characterized by a huge

educational expansion, labor market restructure, and enormous emigration of

young people from the country.

There are myriad studies of the youth transition from school to work, and

many different ways of evaluating the quality of the school-to-work transition

have been considered in the scientific literature. Most of them focus on the first

job duration, whether the person finds a job immediately after exiting education,

or experiences of unemployment (Arum and Shavit 1995). Research on Western

and Eastern European countries has highlighted the central role of educational

qualifications for the labor market integration of youth (Kogan 2011; Müller and

Shavit 1998). Scholars often question whether education creates any labor mar-

ket advantages, that is, whether there are any positive returns to education. This

is because social ties, not education, are assumed to be the key resource that

helps not only in finding a job quickly but also in accessing good ones (Kogan

2011; Kogan, Matkovic´, and Gebel 2013). This article adds to the broader litera-

ture by providing an analysis of how household education (the education of youth

and parents) influences transitions from school to the labor market in a European

country that is undergoing transformative social and economic change.

Understanding School-to-Work Transitions

The transition from education to the labor market is one of the most important

factors that determines professional socialization and social integration (Masdonati

2010). Scientific literature presents numerous concepts of youth transition from

school to the labor market (e.g., Brzinsky-Fay 2008, 2013, 2011; International

Labour Organization [ILO] 2009; Elder 2009; Marchetti et al. 2001; Green,

Owen, and Wilson 2001). The transition from education to the labor market can

be described as having achieved the status or position in the labor market during

the relevant period of time. Most of the research on the transition from education

to the labor market defines this period as between youth exit (15–29 years old)

from the education system (acquisition of appropriate education or completed

training/study) before the first proper job search. In recent years there has been

a lot of adjustments in the definition of the first job. The most common definition