Young Adult Unemployment Through the Lens of Social Media: Italy as a case study

TL;DR

This study combines survey and social media data to analyze personality, moral values, and cultural aspects of unemployed young adults in Italy, revealing subtle differences and usage patterns that can inform policy interventions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach by integrating social media data with surveys to study youth unemployment, highlighting behavioral and cultural insights specific to Italy.

Findings

Unemployed males are less agreeable; females are more open to new experiences.

Unemployed individuals value in-group loyalty, authority, and purity more.

Employed users connect locally; unemployed mainly use Facebook for entertainment and news.

Abstract

Youth unemployment rates are still in alerting levels for many countries, among which Italy. Direct consequences include poverty, social exclusion, and criminal behaviours, while negative impact on the future employability and wage cannot be obscured. In this study, we employ survey data together with social media data, and in particular likes on Facebook Pages, to analyse personality, moral values, but also cultural elements of the young unemployed population in Italy. Our findings show that there are small but significant differences in personality and moral values, with the unemployed males to be less agreeable while females more open to new experiences. At the same time, unemployed have a more collectivist point of view, valuing more in-group loyalty, authority, and purity foundations. Interestingly, topic modelling analysis did not reveal major differences in interests and cultural elements of the unemployed. Utilisation patterns emerged though; the employed seem to use Facebook to connect with local activities, while the unemployed use it mostly as for entertainment purposes and as a source of news, making them susceptible to mis/disinformation. We believe these findings can help policymakers get a deeper understanding of this population and initiatives that improve both the hard and the soft skills of this fragile population.