In Australia, increased youth unemployment since the 1970's has generated considerable anxiety and debate about the criminal potential of young people and has also generated research claiming a causal link between youth unemployment and crime. The author notes that waged labor is steadily becoming a minority activity for most people of working age and that youth, political, and economic policies based on assumptions about an indefinite growth in the labor market or a return to full-time employment ideas of the past are problematic and require rethinking. Rather than providing corrective measures that attempt to restore unfeasible certainties, i.e., full-time employment, efforts should be spent on appreciating the significance of the shift toward a postindustrial society and on considering other ways of providing inner stability and fundamental social experiences for young people that they once obtained through waged work. Adolescent offending is examined in the context of social cohesion, and implications for policy and the morality of work are discussed. 69 references and 2 notes