Not a Real Job? Teenage Labor and Low-Wage Service Work in Sweden

Teenage students constitute an important source of flexible, low-cost labor in interactive service sectors. However, existing empirical research has primarily treated their labor as transitional, focusing on its impact on future employment or labor market outcomes. There remains a lack of knowledge about how these young workers experience and make sense of their early employment, particularly within the Nordic context.This thesis examines teenage students as a labor force in Sweden, at the intersection of low-wage, interactive service work reliant on young, flexible labor, and the different meanings these workers themselves attribute to their jobs. Using a mixed methods approach, the study analyzes data from the Swedish Labor Force Survey (2005-2019) and qualitative interviews with teenage students in paid work (N = 40). Adopting a theoretical perspective grounded in Marxian thought and intersectional feminism, the study investigates questions of exploitation, social differentiation, and subjectivity, focusing on how these issues are shaped by structural and cultural dynamics within the labor market.The thesis consists of three sole-authored, peer-reviewed articles and an integrative part. Article I analyzes survey data to examine trends in the labor force participation of teenage students in Sweden and their worker profiles. It reveals their growing presence in sectors such as hospitality and retail, and demonstrates the heterogeneous nature of this workforce. Article II shows how the labor-intensive, low-unionized service sector creates specific conditions for exploitation. Drawing on interview data, it examines how teenage workers understand and legitimize unpaid labor, identifying three meaning-making rationales that normalize exploitative practices as part of their working lives. Finally, Article III probes deeper into how teenagers construct the meaning of their part-time jobs, focusing on shared narratives that articulate their motivations for working. It examines how these narratives both reflect and obscure social inequalities, showing how classed, racialized, and neighborhood-based differences shape young people’s self-understandings as workers.In synthesizing its findings, the thesis makes several contributions. First, it situates teenage labor within the broader context of Sweden’s low-wage, non-standard service industries. Drawing on multiple data sources, the study offers rich empirical insights into both the development of teenagers’ labor force participation and the challenges they face in their working conditions and daily lives. Second, it highlights the heterogeneous composition of this group and the diverse reasons adolescents take on part-time jobs during school, advancing a nuanced understanding of the unevenly distributed opportunities and risks linked to early employment. Finally, the thesis underscores the importance of cultural and discursive meanings of work. Teenagers often frame their first jobs as steps toward cultivating a self valued in the labor market. For the youngest workers, this ethical attachment to work is expressed in future-oriented, abstract terms that are often disconnected from the realities of service work. These narratives, the thesis argues, enable young people to downplay financial dependence and legitimize exploitative conditions. In conclusion, the study positions teenage labor as a meaningful site for both the production of youth subjectivities and the reproduction of social inequalities.