Why do you think young people are not working?
For decades, the story of happiness over a lifetime looked like a U. Across more than 600 studies, people reported being fairly content when young, sinking into a midlife trough, and recovering in later years. New research suggests that curve has flattened into a slope, and the direction of the slope depends on where in Europe you live. In northern Europe, wellbeing tends to rise with age. In southern Europe, it tends to fall. The factor that separates the two regions is youth employment.
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That raises an uncomfortable question: why are so many young people not working?
The easy answer, and why it’s wrong
A common response is that young people simply don’t want to work. It’s an old complaint, and every generation has heard some version of it. But the happiness research points the other way. If young people were disengaged by choice, you wouldn’t expect their wellbeing to fall where jobs are scarce, or to hold up where jobs are plentiful. People who are unemployed against their will are typically unhappier, and the regional divide suggests that opportunity, not attitude, is doing the work.
Too few doors, too high a bar
One explanation is simply the supply of jobs. In parts of southern Europe, youth unemployment has run far above the rest of the continent for years, and there are fewer entry points for people with no experience. Even where jobs exist, the “entry-level” role often asks for years of experience, a degree, and unpaid internships first. Young people are caught in a loop: they can’t get experience without a job, and can’t get a job without experience.
Precarious work
Not working is not the same as having no job at all. Many young people cycle through short contracts, gig work, and unpaid trial periods that never add up to a career. This kind of work counts as employment on paper but delivers little of what makes work good for wellbeing: stability, progression, and the confidence to plan ahead. Commenters discussing the research describe exactly this, saying hard work no longer reliably leads to secure finances or a promising future.
A mismatch between training and demand
Another factor is the gap between what young people study and what employers need. Some graduates find that their qualifications don’t match available roles, while employers complain of skills shortages. Education systems that connect closely with employers, through apprenticeships and structured school-to-work routes, tend to ease this transition. Where those links are weak, young people are left to bridge the gap alone.
The cost of getting started
Taking a job can itself be expensive. High rents in job-rich cities, the cost of commuting, and low starting wages make some entry-level positions hard to afford. For some, working a poorly paid job far from home leaves them no better off than not working at all, so they wait for something better, or can’t move to where the work is.
Health, agency, and discouragement
There is also a feedback loop. Long stretches without work can erode confidence, and young people describe a sense of powerlessness, as though life happens to them rather than being something they steer. Psychologists have long linked a sense of control to better mental health, and low mental health makes job searching harder still. Some young people stop looking altogether, not out of laziness but out of discouragement. Many also point to the weight of inherited problems, such as environmental crises and shrinking public support, which deepens pessimism about the future.
What can be done
None of these explanations is a single cause, and the research shows a correlation, not proof that employment alone drives the shift. Self-reported happiness is imperfect, and regional averages hide big differences. Still, the practical lessons are clear: build real pathways from education into work, reduce reliance on unstable contracts, make starting a career affordable, and treat early joblessness as a serious problem rather than a passing phase.
