As a young person, being faced with unemployment when entering working life can have consequences in both the short and long term.

According to Anders Forslund, it is more difficult for those who are going into working life during a recession or a crisis.

- In the short term, it will be more difficult to get a job and it mainly affects young people who are entering the labor market and new arrivals.

Then we know from previous research that it usually takes time to make up for what you have lost.

If you compare two young people, one who comes out to unemployment and one who comes out into working life when there is no recession, there are possible problems for a long time for those who came out of unemployment, says Anders Forslund who works for the Institute for Labor Market and Education Policy Evaluation, IFAU.

Forslund describes that those who are young and unemployed during a recession, to a greater extent risk receiving a lower salary later in life and being unemployed for a longer period of time, up to several years.

Beats disproportionately

Crises and recessions hit young people suffering from unemployment differently.

During the crisis in the 1990s, young people were affected in both the short and long term.

The financial crisis of 2008 hit young people hard in the short term, while the long-term consequences were not as obvious as in the 1990s.

The current pandemic is hitting hard on, for example, the hotel and restaurant industry.

And service industries in particular are important when it comes to young people's chances of getting a job.

- The corona crisis is a bit special.

Service industries are typical entry-level industries for young people, this is where you have your first job very often.

When those industries are now doing badly, it hits young people disproportionately hard, so in that way the crisis is doubly unfortunate for young people this time, says Anders Forslund.

Youth unemployment and its effects are, of course, affected by how long a crisis lasts. 

 - It plays a very big role how long this will be and if we know very little about it, Forslund says about the corona crisis.