YOUTH 2020 - The position of young people in Slovenia

Key findings of The Youth 2020 study  347 After decades of exposure to high levels of precarious work, it is not sur- prising that young people have changed their expectations regarding em- ployment. They are increasingly willing to be geographically mobile, to undertake further training and are significantly more willing to accept temporary work and lower pay to increase their employment prospects. As many as two-thirds of young people are willing to embark on an entre- preneurial path to avoid unemployment. Young people are therefore in- creasingly accepting precarious employment situations. This can be linked to the trend of increasing preference for private sector employment and decreasing preference for public sector employment. In light of this, it is not surprising that the entrepreneurial spirit is growing among young people. Young people are significantly more likely than a decade ago to report that their education has sparked their interest in becoming entre- preneurs. In line with the general characteristics of the current genera- tion of young people, what matters most to Slovenian young people about work is that it is interesting, that it allows a high degree of autonomy, and that the work has a clear objective. Job security is also important to young people, but somewhat less so than the above characteristics. The labour market situation, together with wider productivity pressures in modern society, is certainly one of the key reasons for the marked in- crease in stress among young people. Compared to 2010, the proportion of young people who feel stressed several days a week has more than dou- bled. There has also been a sharp increase in the proportion of young peo- ple, who perceive loneliness as a problem. 2 There has been a sharp in- crease in young people’s concerns about other key areas of their lives, such as lack of money, (failure to) succeed at school or in a job, and (failure to get a) job or housing problems. The significant increase in young peo- ple who are pessimistic about the future of our society is also worrying. Such perceptions are mainly linked to concerns about an ageing popula- tion and the degradation of the natural environment. The data also shows that young people have less and less generalised trust in other people. 2 This increase can partially be attributed to the pandemic, however according to our cal- culations a large part of the increase is also independent of the current conditions (see the chapter on methodology).