AbstractThis paper describes the experiences of a sample of Scottish school leavers during their first year in the labour market in 1980 and 1981. The paper describes the absorption of summer term leavers into the labour market and their movements between employment, unemployment and the Youth Opportunities Programme (YOP). The summer months continued to be the main recruitment season for school leavers; after October few school leavers found employment without first going on YOP. Yet a majority of entrants to YOP did not find work at the end of their schemes, and YOP had become a major ingredient of a new pattern of instability in the youth labour market. School leavers' chances of employment varied with their school qualifications and with the area they lived in. The paper concludes with a discussion of the Youth Training Scheme, which comes into operation in September 1983.