Students (N= 334) in their penultimate year in five State high schools answered a questionnaire that contained a variety of items including some designed to measure employment importance and helplessness‐pessimism about employment prospects. A factor analysis supported the assumption that the items were located on these two dimensions. A path analysis showed that higher social class predicted more internal attribution for unemployment, higher school grades, and an employed rather than an unemployed father or guardian. Higher internal attribution for unemployment predicted more school guidance about employment prospects and higher school grades predicted staying at school longer. Less guidance about employment obtained at school, less internal attribution for unemployment, and lower school grades predicted helplessness‐pessimism about employment prospects. Results were related to those from previous studies and implications of the findings for' future research into unemployment were discus