We provide new evidence on earnings volatility and labour market volatility, which also includes flows into and out of employment, of young workers across Europe during the Great Recession, and examine the institutional factors that may shape these flows. Using EU-SILC data, we document large disparities in volatility levels and trends across European countries. As expected, the Great Recession increased volatility among Europe’s youth, offsetting the falling trend observed over the last years of economic prosperity. Larger unemployment benefits and more stringent employment protection legislation are related to lower earnings and labour market volatility

This paper has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement no. 649395, project title: NEGOTIATE – Overcoming early job-insecurity in Europe. Both authors also acknowledge financial support from the projects ECO2013-46516-C4-1-R, ECO2016-76506-C4-4-R and 2014-SGR-1279