ESS cross-country findings for Education and Labour Markets challenges.

Abstract

The Over the past 15 years, the European panorama of working and social life has continued to experience demanding changes. Contemporary society could be considered as a puzzle with different pieces: sometimes, the integration of these pieces into the working and social structure is relatively simple, in others more complex. Global issues are impacting on education and labour market systems, together with the complicated situation due to the pandemic, and a war which is striking Europe, in terms of ethical principles and economy. All these factors make crucial for education and labour market systems to assume a socially sustainable structure.

This paper aims at providing a comparative assessment of cross-country variations regarding components investigated in the Round-9 of the European Social Survey (ESS).

Differences and analogies regarding the possibility to achieve a desired level of education and an adequate job, connected with aspects of satisfaction towards life and democracy, are analysed. Data from all participating countries are investigated, and few countries have been selected according to their specific cultural, welfare and labour market characteristics for an in-depth analysis.

The focus starts from responses derived from the Italy context which represents a southern European conception, characterized by criticized educational systems and difficulties in the labour market (high young unemployment rate) and eventually a low level of trust. Findings are compared to other contexts where the perception of trust and future possibilities are more positive as well as the quality of the services provided (mainly European northern countries, i.e., Finland). Diversities of opinions and attitudes are also gathered from countries where many different ethnicities, beliefs, and traditions reside, and perspectives are therefore dense and complicated (Central Eastern Europe, i.e., Poland).