Career Activities and the Wellbeing of Young People in Australia

This research aims to explore how young people’s engagement with career activities relates to their wellbeing. The research draws on data from the LSAY. It explores the relationship between young people’s career activities at age 16 and their wellbeing at age 25, measured by self-reported levels of career and life satisfaction. Analyses reveal that their career activities undertaken in senior secondary schools had a significant effect on the wellbeing of these 25 year olds. The importance of career support is becoming increasingly recognised overseas and in Australia (Mann et al., Teenagers’ career aspirations and the future of work, 2020). Young people have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic (ABS, Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Table Builder, 2021), and in response, researchers and practitioners have called for increased career services to support young people in navigating the labour market and their futures (Walsh et al., The 2022 Australian Youth Barometer: Understanding young people in Australia today. Monash University, Melbourne: Centre for Youth Policy and Education Practice, 2022). Following other countries such as New Zealand and Scotland, the Australian government has prioritised individuals’ wellbeing, as related to work, physical and mental health and access to services in economic budgets and planning (Bartos, Australia’s wellbeing budget: what we can—and can’t—learn from NZ. The Conversation, 2022). The relationship between careers and wellbeing has been conceptualised, but how career activities relate to long-term wellbeing is not well understood in the Australian context.