Barriers in the transition from school to work: how student financial adversity predicts deprioritizing jobs with the best long-term career progression

Julia Buzan and Jennifer Sheehy-Skeffington

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: Despite education's potential to reshape societal inequalities, recent gains in broadening university access across the socioeconomic spectrum have not translated into parallel gains in the transition from school to work. This work applies a socioecological approach to understanding this pattern, considering the role of job factors and individual financial background in shaping undergraduate student job choices and perceived career prospects. In two discrete choice experiments (n = 800) UK undergraduate students chose between pairs of job descriptions varying primarily along two dimensions: immediate versus delayed benefits (e.g., starting salary vs. salary progression), and concrete versus abstract benefits (e.g., salary vs. values fit). The findings suggest that career choice may be shaped by socioeconomic constraints above and beyond individual preferences for meaningful work, while the relationship between financial strain and career pessimism is mediated by inequalities in perceived control over life outcomes and personal connections to the job.

JEL-codes: J01 R14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2024-12-31
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in Journal of Social Issues, 31, December, 2024, 80(4), pp. 1460 - 1483. ISSN: 0022-4537

Downloads: (external link)
http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/126272/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:126272

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library LSE Library Portugal Street London, WC2A 2HD, U.K.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by LSERO Manager ().