DAVID ASHTON is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Leicester and Director of Research for the Labour Market Studies group. He previously taught at the University of Reading, and was Visiting Professor at the State University of New York in Buffalo. He is co-author of Young Workers and author of Unemployment under Capitalism. MALCOLM MAGUIRE is a Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Leicester, having initially joined the university as a Research Associate. He was previously a Research Assistant in the Department of Social Administration at Hull University. Major research projects on which he has worked include Youth in the Labour Market, Young Adults in the Labour Market and The Changing Structure of the Youth Labour Market. MARK SPILSBURY graduated from the University of Bradford with a degree in economics. Following doctoral research he worked in the Labour Market Studies Group at the University of Leicester, where he undertook research for this book. Subsequently he has worked as an economic adviser to the Government, before taking up his present post as a consultant in the private sector.