Resilience to the financial crisis in EU countries: a comparative analysis of NEET youths in a longitudinal perspective

In recent years the number of young individuals not in employment, education nor training has been rising alarmingly. This condition may have long-lasting social and economic consequences and the ability to profile the most resilient types gives important information on more effective interventions for the most fragile ones. We analyse the trajectories of young Europeans in and out of the NEET condition in the decade following the financial crisis. We link the trajectories to pre-crisis structural features of selected institutions at the country level as well as to pre-crisis economic growth, institutions, and policies often mentioned as able to facilitate the employment of young people. We take advantage of the longitudinal nature of the EU-SILC rotating panel to identify specific patterns in and out of the NEET condition, and we estimate a multilevel model to assess the impact of macro-variables on individual trajectories. The main results point to the positive effect of family support policies, training, and economic growth in decreasing the probability of being NEET for a very long period of time.