Louise. K, Tomovic, A., Cole, D., Carroll, K., Collins. P. (2025). In Limbo: Where is my Job? A report on the link between meaningful work and Cultural Wellbeing for young people in NSW. Western Sydney University Young and Resilient Research Centre

The term meaningful work is contested and under theorized. The scoping review found that while there is much research on the nature of precarious work for young people, there is a significant gap in the literature that fails to position young people’s perspectives on meaningful work. This indicates current research on what constitutes meaningful work for youth does not include youth voice and therefore is limited in definitions of meaningful work for young people especially how this impacts their wellbeing. Further to this there is a lack of studies that focus on Western Sydney or Regional NSW cohorts despite the importance of work life impacts on Western Sydney populations who experience a range of socioeconomic disadvantages such as distance from work, toll stress and employment discrimination based on home address. Intergenerational aspects of work inequality was a strong theme that young people wished to discuss, which is not adequately studied

The search of the four databases and 2 scholarly search engines, as well as the additional search through a snowballing technique, resulted in a total of 72 studies. After removing all duplicates, 68 studies remained. The advanced search options of keyword screening were used (last search date: 13 October 2025). The full-text screening then resulted in 23 studies being retained.