Labouring and learning: part-time work and full time education

This article analyses the part-time working patterns of 16-18 year olds still in full-time education in Great Britain. Drawing upon pooled Family Expenditure Survey data, it shows that participation rate for this group is high, and rising over time. On average, during the period 1968-71, around 40 per cent of 16-18 year olds still in full-time education had some source of income from employment, this percentage had risen to 59 per cent by 1988-91. Participation rates tend to be higher amongst girls than boys. In a multivariate analysis, participation rates appear to be unrelated to household income, although they are affected by the employment status of other household members. Whilst the incomes of most of this group are relatively small, approximately 15 per cent contributed at least 10 per cent of the total income of the household in which they lived. The labour supply of teenagers in full-time education has been largely neglected in analyses both of the UK youth labour market and of educational decisions and policy. The teenage years have been seen as when a single tran