Unemployment and labour market adjustments have featured prominently among the problems of transitional economies. However, the position of young people and their transition from school to work in these new market economies has been virtually ignored. This paper deals with long-term youth unemployment problems and their integration into the labour market as viewed by different authors. The authors consider that the youth long-term unemployment is a global problem. Also, there are analysed statistical data on youth long-term unemployment, and a forecast of the youth unemployment rate for the 1st quarter of 2014 is made. The weakening of the global recovery in the years 2012 and 2013 has aggravated the youth employment crisis when there were no free jobs with adequate requirements for people without education and professional skills. The current situation promotes the trend that was already evident before the economic crisis. Most of young people are now turning to available part-time jobs or choose to study only. The author considers that the youths who have access to different resources will find more stable jobs or make their own businesses after unemployment than those lacking such different kinds of support. In building the education and employment decisions in the transition from school to work, there is a strong evidence of the importance of youths making good initial career decisions and an enduring effect of academic achievement on labour market and education outcomes.

Volunteer work has been identified as a relatively new kind of leisure activities. It plays an important role in various, at the same time it is a great possibility to learn, acquire new skills and accumulate human capital while taking part in volunteer activities. Therefore, the objective of the study is to research the policies related to voluntary work and their relevance in realization and development of volunteer work in Latvia. Theoretical literature shows that in Latvia the volunteer work is mentioned in some policies – economic, youth policies and civil society. In the framework of economic policy successful development of volunteering enhances the progress of economic processes in the state in two ways by making contributions to Gross Domestic Product; by accumulating person’s human capital, results illustrate that although the term “voluntary work” has a long history, infrastructure for realization of the voluntary work has not been developed in Latvia, and regulatory enactments do not cover voluntary work in an adequate manner. After the analysis the author believes that volunteering is widely discussed in the youth policy as there is law and a range of structured documents where aspects of volunteer work are mentioned. According to the results of research, in the frame of civil society it must be noted that in Latvia the voluntary work movement has to be examined in the context of the establishment of non-governmental organizations because voluntary work movement started to develop in a purposeful and organized manner only in 1998 in non-governmental organizations.

In foreign studies Latvia is positioned as a ‘depressive’ region in the year 2030, which will have an insufficient population of young people. Thus, Latvia as a country with a business-friendly environment will not be able to be competitive relative to other European countries and the flow of investment will be at risk, as well as passed on other, more competitive and better developed regions in demographic terms (Grinevica et al ., 2016). It is one of the main reasons to deal with the youth unemployment problem and to realize the actuality and consequences. Also, one of the EU’s priorities of development is to reduce youth unemployment. National labour force surveys (Hoffman, 2011) show that since 2008 the youth unemployment rate has risen in all the EU countries (Hjūza & Borbējs-Pece, 2012). The current economic instability in the context of youth’s prospects and opportunities in the labour market is uncertain (Balan, 2014). Youth unemployment has also a negative effect on economic growth and productivity. The aim of the paper is to identify the importance of unemployed youths and draw the society’s attention to the consequences. The paper presents a brief analysis of importance of unemployment costs as well as the calculation of an economic loss from youth unemployment in Latvia. The result was calculated using Okun’s Law concept.

The impacts of agricultural policies are decisive on the agricultural sector, especially in the case of the European Union’s (EU) Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The 2013 CAP reform introduced several new measures. In budgetary terms, basic payment and greening were the most significant ones. Besides, coupled supports, young farmer and small farmers scheme should be mentioned. To reveal the changes caused by these measures, the time horizon of the study is 2013−2017. Since the subsidies represent a significant part of the income generated in the agricultural sector, the basic hypothesis of the study is that the production units concerned (individual farms, private enterprises) gave economically rational answers. In practice, this means trying to fully adapt to the changes to maximize support. Based on the analysed datasets (Hungarian Central Statistical Office and Hungarian State Treasury), it became evident that farmers responded rationally: splitting up farms against capping, moving towards the lowest resistance to comply with greening, plus associating them with the extra support of coupled payments. Generational renewal is a key issue; however, the present form of young farmers’ scheme needs to be refined to be more effective. Small farmers scheme is a good opportunity for farmers with less than 5.5 ha and most of the concerned farmers chose well. However, there are about 6,000 farms that are too small for the standard system, while 772 farms that are too large for the small farmers scheme.

Research in many countries across the world, including Latvia, shows that youth participation in national defence is a topical issue. So far, scholarly research focusing on the promotion of youth participation in national defence and the provision of career support at school age and after finishing school is scarce. Therefore, the aim of the research was to establish the basis for young people’s military career in national defence. Research results show that there is both theoretical and legal basis for young people to start a military career, already during school years. Based on the broad meaning of the concepts career and career development, young people’s self-development, self-management and self-actualisation in various fields of human activity over one’s lifetime emerge as topical issues. Such activities of various kinds may follow one another in succession or take place simultaneously, in parallel, in accordance with dual career theories. The beginning and development of young people’s military career in Latvia can occur in the context of various activities already present and available in the near future: 1) participation in the Latvian Youth Guard as a type of non-formal education, 2) acquisition of National defence training at school in the context of formal education, 3) upon reaching legal age, voluntarily joining the Latvian National Guard, which is a component of the National Armed Forces of the Republic of Latvia.

In the current context of economic instability, youths are faced with the emergence of a feeling of uncertainty with respect to their own chances of having a good debut on the labour market. The world crisis, the social reality that all societies are faced with, brought again up to the forefront the idea of young individuals’ fragility on the labour market (Balan, 2014). According to Eurostat statistical data, in the European Union young people represent one-fifth of the total population. Today the young people are facing the impacts of economical crisis and globalisation, population ageing and innovation explosion, which affects employability, education and training systems and social development. Successful youth’s integration into the labour market is one of the main factors for future development and their inclusion into society. One of the main indicators for youth’s inclusion into society is the development of a knowledge-based economy. It is important to aim at the development of a knowledge-based economy in rural regions because the majority of unemployed persons are concentrated in these regions. The Quintuple Helix Model represents the relationships between universities, firms and governments and, in this case, their influence on youth’s integration into the society and labour market in rural regions. The paper presents a brief analysis of youths’ unemployment development and their integration into the labour market in Latvia’s regions and an analysis of the factors affecting this phenomenon by using the Quintuple Helix Model.