abstract: 'Youth unemployment figures include large numbers of full-time students,

  yet student joblessness receives very little academic attention,

  especially at a qualitative level. Despite being relatively less

  deleterious than youth unemployment more broadly, we show that student

  unemployment remains an important site for the practice and

  reinforcement of social inequality. Using a Bourdieusian framework to

  analyse interviews with 27 undergraduate students who have been

  unsuccessful in term-time job searching, we expose some of the limits to

  the extent that social and cultural capital can be converted into

  positive employment outcomes. Importantly, the data reveal that it is

  (lack of) access to material and economic resources that is most

  significant in ensuring that both the experience of unemployment and,

  concomitantly, the experience of university, in yet another way, remain

  highly structured by social class. These divisions shape the imperative

  and timing of the need to work, and also underpin nuances in respect of

  desires and needs in how students talk about their motivations for

  part-time work. These should be important considerations if

  policy-makers want to create a genuinely meritocratic system or deliver

  equitable psychological and material well-being.'
affiliation: 'Roberts, S (Corresponding Author), Monash Univ, SoSS, Melbourne, Vic,
  Australia.

  Roberts, Steven, Monash Univ, SoSS, Melbourne, Vic, Australia.'
author: Roberts, Steven and Li, Zhen
author-email: steven.d.roberts@monash.edu
author_list:
- family: Roberts
  given: Steven
- family: Li
  given: Zhen
da: '2023-09-28'
doi: 10.1080/13676261.2016.1260697
eissn: 1469-9680
files: []
issn: 1367-6261
journal: JOURNAL OF YOUTH STUDIES
keywords: Student unemployment; employment; social class; capitals
keywords-plus: 'WORKING-CLASS STUDENTS; HIGHER-EDUCATION; LABOR-MARKET; YOUNG-PEOPLE;

  FULL-TIME; EMPLOYMENT; EMPLOYABILITY; SKILLS; CONSTRUCTION; EXPERIENCES'
language: English
number: '6'
number-of-cited-references: '56'
orcid-numbers: Roberts, Steven/0000-0003-4000-2257
pages: 732-749
papis_id: c6f1880423cc6287c1d74ec930173433
ref: Roberts2017capitallimits
times-cited: '7'
title: 'Capital limits: social class, motivations for term-time job searching and
  the consequences of joblessness among UK university students'
type: Article
unique-id: WOS:000402844700005
usage-count-last-180-days: '1'
usage-count-since-2013: '14'
volume: '20'
web-of-science-categories: Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary
year: '2017'