Life Patterns: ten years following Generation Y

The Life Patterns research program is designed to follow patterns in young people's lives over time in order to gain a longitudinal and holistic understanding of the ways in which two generations of young Australians are responding to our rapidly changing world. The program is based at the Youth Research Centre at the University of Melbourne and explores the pathways through different areas of life taken by Australian young people including their experiences in education, the labour market, their family and personal relationships, attitudes to life, concerns, and health and wellbeing. It...  [+] Show more

The Life Patterns research program is designed to follow patterns in young people's lives over time in order to gain a longitudinal and holistic understanding of the ways in which two generations of young Australians are responding to our rapidly changing world. The program is based at the Youth Research Centre at the University of Melbourne and explores the pathways through different areas of life taken by Australian young people including their experiences in education, the labour market, their family and personal relationships, attitudes to life, concerns, and health and wellbeing. It follows two generations of Australians - Cohort 1, who left secondary school in 1991 (corresponding to the popular notion of 'Generation X') and Cohort 2 that left secondary school in 2006 (corresponding to the popular notion of 'Generation Y').

This publication focuses only on the generation that left secondary school in 2006, Cohort 2 of the Life Patterns project, providing a summary of the last 10 years. This cohort experiences different conditions and circumstances to those of their parents. Changes include the gradual entrenchment of precarious work (that is, short-term contracts and part-time work), and mixing work and study for extended periods. The authors suggest that these new conditions, opportunities and priorities have created a 'new adulthood'. In response to these changes, members of this generation have largely accepted that it is up to the individual young person (and their family) to invest in education and take responsibility for navigating increasingly precarious and insecure labour markets. Unlike previous generations, this generation tends to expect an unstable path through the job market, a longer road towards achieving job security and is wary of planning their work or family lives too far into the future.

Edited excerpts from publication.