Ung och arbetssökande : en studie av ungdomars erfarenheter

Sammanfattning: The main purpose of this licentiate thesis is to describe and analyse young adult's experience of unemployment; how young adults form strategies and relate to their unemployment as well as how they perceive their possibilities of establishing their selves in the labour market. The two main questions for this study are; how do adolescents cope and relate to being unemployed? And; what do they think about the possibilities of securing employment in the future?This licentiate thesis began as a labour market project where interviews with nineteen adolescents, 14 male(s) and 5 female(s), aged between 18 and 25 years were carried out. These interviews provide a description of the adolescent experience of being unemployed as well as subjects in labour market action programmes. The adolescents describe their meeting with different organizations in society from a labour market perspective. Through the project description it is understood that the background to this project was the experience of shortcomings of authorities to identifying and cooperating with young jobseekers during the early stage and not providing sufficient support to make their establishment on the labour market easier.A central impression is that these adolescents legitimise their unemployment by relating it to the unrealistic demands of employers and authorities. Another impression is that these young people also create strategies and space to deal with their situation. This may be visible in the daily life through activities that give the day structure such as physical activities or spending time with friends. These strategies reveal that these young people consider social activities as important, that participation in different labour market projects means that they are active in their unemployment and give their life structure. The most important strategy is however the struggle to secure employment as this makes them economically independent and social status. The majority are not interested in the social political system and consider it difficult to influence, one reason for this is that they perceive themselves as passive victims.In the process of establishing their selves in the labour market young people meet the representatives of society's different authorities that act as social support. However, what the authorities consider as support most young people consider as control in that they must routinely adapt to existing measures of actions instead of the actions being adapted to the individual.