YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT AND SELF-EMPLOYMENT: TRENDS AND PERSPECTIVES

As it was noted by Manyande (2006), “a typical characteristic of most labor markets around the world is that the youth unemployment rate is much higher than that of adults” (p. 3). Youth unemployment is sensitive to the changes in general economic conditions, fluctuations in aggregate demand and minimum wages. Youth are often the first to be laid off when companies downsize and are not eligible for redundancy payments. Even higher education does not guarantee a decent job. If left uncared, high youth unemployment rates can negatively affect the economic growth potential of a country and create the conditions for social unrest (Burchell et al., 2015). Self-employment is often advocated as a potential remedy for the perennial problem of youth unemployment (Williams, 2004; Manyande, 2006; Sheehan & Mc Namara, 2015; Dvouletý et al., 2018; etc) because it helps a person to enter the labour market despite limited work experience, low qualifications, caring responsibilities, health conditions, etc (Walsh, 2011; Dimian et al., 2018).