Parallel Lives: Birth, Childhood and Adolescent Influences on Career Paths

Abstract

This paper uses sequence methods and cluster analysis to create a typology of career paths for a cohort of British 29 year olds born in 1970. There are clear ‘types’ identified by these techniques including several paths dominated by various forms of non-employment. These types are strongly correlated with individual characteristics and parental background factors observed at birth, age ten and age sixteen. By estimating a multinomial logit model of career types we show how policy makers might identify early those young people likely to experience long term non-employment as adults, enabling better targeted preventative policy intervention.careers, cluster analysis, optimal matching