affective reactions to employment and unemployment as a function of prior expectations and motivation selfesteem and depressive affect measures were obtained from 809 employed and 137 unemployed young people and compared with atschool measures taken three years earlier scores were analysed in relation to atschool expectations of obtaining employment and expressed importance of getting a job in both employed and unemployed groups low prior expectations of getting a job led to a greater increase in selfesteem than high prior expectations among the unemployed those who had rated getting a job as relatively important showed a greater increase in depressive affect than those who had rated getting a job as relatively less important