ABSTRACT
This chapter assesses the ordinary kids' performance in the labour market and reconciles their ambition to 'get on' in working-class terms to the labour market realities of the 1980s. The labour market realities of the 1980s are such that the vast majority of ordinary kids are either unemployed, not in the jobs they want, or have postponed their transition into the labour market. The ordinary kids' response to their experiences since leaving school is also of sociological interest, because differences in educational performance and pupil divisions within school have usually been identified as a major determinant of variations in working-class life styles and intra-class divisions. The chapter considers the consequences of the collapse of job opportunities for ordinary kids, rather than attempting to provide an explanation of why the ordinary kids have experienced the labour market in different ways. The attitudes to Government schemes considered are not of equal importance for understanding compliance with formal provisions for unemployed school leavers.
