Getting a Job: School‐leavers' Perceptions of Employment Prospects

S ummary . Whereas most studies of unemployment have tended to focus on the psychological effects of joblessness, few studies have looked at young people's beliefs about, or strategies of, getting a job. This study was concerned with school‐leavers' attributions about the causes of unemployment, the most and least useful job‐search strategies, and beliefs about which school courses they felt most useful in getting a job. Results showed both sex and class differences in their internal attributions about employment and external attributions about unemployment. Sciences, rather than arts or social science courses, were thought to be most useful in getting a job. The results are discussed in terms of attribution and expectancy theory. Problems associated with research of this kind are also considered.