Intergenerational worklessness in the UK and the role of local labour markets

Despite the increase in research on intergenerational income mobility over the past two decades, there has been little focus on measuring intergenerational worklessness in the UK. This research is the first to present estimates of the association in workless spells across generations for two new cohorts, born in 1970 and the late 1970s, and to consider the important role of local labour market conditions in driving the intergenerational relationship. In recent cohorts, sons with workless fathers spend 11% more time out of work than sons with employed fathers from leaving full time education to age 23. This estimate increases to 16% when focusing on later periods of adulthood (23-29). Intergenerational worklessness increases with unemployment: sons in low unemployment labour markets have similar workless experiences, regardless of their father’s employment status in childhood, while sons in high unemployment labour markets spend up to 30% more time out of work if their father is workless rather than employed in childhood