This paper investigates the intergenerational transmission of worklessness according the gender of parents and the gender of their children and across different groups of European countries. Based on EU-SILC 2005 and 2011 data, we document the existence of a positive intergenerational correlation of worklessness between mothers and daughters, which is quite stable over time and similar across country groups, except in Nordic countries. By contrast, maternal employment becomes important for their sons only in 2011, i.e. when youth labour market conditions are more stringent. The effects of fathers’ employment are less widespread, being systematically positive and significant only in Mediterranean countries. From a policy perspective, our findings call for new policy initiatives aimed at helping mothers of adolescents to enter, remain or reenter into paid work, but also helping children of non-working mothers to develop the necessary soft-skills and attitudes to be successfully included in the labour market.

Keywords: youth, worklessness, intergenerational transmission, family background, gender, Europe.

JEL classification codes: J16, J62, J64