The aim of the paper is to assess the impact of changes in occupational structure on the level and composition of youth employment. Substantial occupational segrega tion of youth employment persists, suggesting the existence of identifiable 'youth jobs' and 'adult jobs'. When a shift and share approach is applied to changes in the levels of youth employment over the 1971-81 period, changing youth shares of employment within occupations are found to be a dominant influence on youth employment levels. This suggests the importance of competitive factors in the labour market and is consistent with existing research. There is also evidence that occupa tional segregation and changes in occupational structure have had an important influence on the employment of youth. These will probably continue to be impor tant, given continuing long-term growth in service sector occupations, and the decline in trades and prodtrction process worker occupations. The former trend will work to the advantage of young females, who are concentrated in these growth occupations, while the latter will act as a constraint on the employment of young males, particularly 15 to 20-year-olds.
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