The transition from school to work in 1979–1987 in the Netherlands*

We analyze the early labour market experiences of the cohort born in the Netherlands around 1965. Some of them, who left school early, entered the labour market just before the economic crisis of the eighties; the others entered the labour market during the period of high unemployment. We concentrate on the time-period between school-leaving and entering the first job. The individual differences in these initial durations of non-employment are analyzed by estimating hazard functions.