The Making of Vulnerable Workers: Uncredentialed Young Adults in Postindustrial, Urban America

Common explanations for the employment difficulties facing young adults without a secondary credential center on skill deficits, with little attention given to policies and practices that shape the nature of work. Using interview data from a participatory action research project, this article examines the employment experiences of 43 uncredentialed young adults in a deindustrialized, urban community. Contextualizing their accounts within shifts in job and labor markets in the postindustrial political economy and drawing on the “vulnerable workers” framework, it shows how participants were disenfranchised as workers and job-seekers. I argue that educators should more fully account for the challenges facing workers with low levels of formal education and engage with economic and labor policies and practices that make these workers economically vulnerable.