Starting when a person is young, being employed contributes to their accumulation of the stock of competencies, knowledge and social and personality attributes that work helps build and that produces a person’s economic value. Prolonged unemployment shortens and retards youth’s chances to develop that human capital. This leads to a loss of opportunity, income and fulfillment over a person’s lifetime, affecting their quality of life.
A growing number of studies have concluded that young people who begin their adult lives without work have a greater likelihood of unemployment in the future, even after moving into the workforce, and lower wages when they are working. While the severity and length of this carry-over impact appears to vary from country to country, it is evidenced worldwide.
People who are unemployed often find themselves marginalized in their communities and socially isolated. They can lose much of their civic identity, becoming ones to be served rather than ones with recognized capacity to serve others.