Unemployment without social exclusion: evidence from young people in Eastern Europe

Challenges the position that high and persistent unemployment necessarily leads to the formation of socially excluded groups. Presents evidence drawn from studies of people in former communist countries. Suggests that unemployment, even when high will not lead to exclusion except under three conditions, paid work is concentated within standard (permanent, full time) official jobs, job seekers are arranged in “queues” and that the unemployed are regarded by others, and regard themselves as a group apart. States these conditions do not apply in the countries reviewed and therefore the original assumption needs to be reassessed.