Ten Years after Special Education: Socially Maladjusted Boys on the Labor Market

Abstract

This article examines the employment status of 28 young men about 10 years after leaving classes for students with social maladjustment. On the basis of their work careers, they were placed in one of four labor market sectors using as criteria (a) employed/unemployed at the time of the interview and (b) history of long-term and short-term employment. At the time of the interviews, 12 of the young men on the labor market were unemployed and 14 were working. In addition, two were outside the labor market: 1 in prison and 1 receiving a pension for a physical disability. The large percentage of unemployed respondents was due to the exceptionally difficult economic situation prevailing in Finland at the time the interviews were carried out. The national unemployment rate approached 20%, and the youth unemployment rate was over 30%. Despite a lack of vocational education, all the young men but three had a positive attitude toward work, and those who were unemployed were actively seeking a job. When measured in terms of length of employment, the attachment of these young men to working life differed greatly: A few had been in the service of the same employer for the entire postschool period (longest, 10 years), while others had had several jobs of a few months' duration interspersed with periods of unemployment.