Crisis del empleo y polarización de las trayectorias laborales. El caso de los adultos jóvenes en Cataluña

The article presents the results of a research aimed at analyzing how economic and employ
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ment crisis in Spain has affected the labour trajectories of the population under 40 years.
The trajectories during this period are analyzed from two points of view. First, descriptively,
building a typology of trajectories and analyzing it in comparison with the population of
more than 40 years. Second, causally, identifying the factors that explain the different types
of trajectories found. These analyses assess to what extent has been, during the period of
crisis, a polarization between the trajectories of persons belonging to the younger cohorts
and those belonging to the older ones. On the other hand, the analyses also assess whether it
has been a progressive gap within the younger cohorts on the type of trajectories developed.
The results show that the «inter-generational polarisation» is given in a lesser extent than
is often defended in the international literature, while the «intra-generational polarisation»
is not really a polarisation, but a segmentation into three types. As to causal analysis, it is
found that the classical variables of segmentation in the Spanish labour market have con
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tinued to influence the labour trajectories during the crisis. Factors such as sector or social
origin have had also a causal effect.