As a result of the "risk society" (in which career and adult transitions are less orderly and predictable), young people have adopted various transition behaviors--strategic, step-by-step, taking chances, and wait-and-see--as they follow different paths: higher education, training for skilled or semiskilled occupations, unskilled…

Among 320 young adults in matched German and English labor markets, long-term occupational goals and the behaviors used to achieve them depended not only on past socialization in family and school but also on identity formation related to experiences during transition to employment. Five career patterns are described and linked to transitional…

In eastern Germany, reunification involved economic and political transformations that have resulted in new education, training, and employment structures. A study of young adults in Leipzig and their transition to employment focused on how the interplay between institutional structures and individual actions produced career outcomes. Similarities…

The education-to-labor market transitions experienced by young people in England and in eastern and western Germany were compared. The eastern German portion of the study was based on a 1996 study that included a survey of 100 trainers and 1,000 apprentices in 12 companies; in-depth interviews with 18 trainers, career advisers, and others; and…