Using longitudinal, comparable micro-data from three recent school-leaver surveys, this paper provides first empirical evidence on the determinants and early career consequences of informal employment in early labour careers of graduates in Croatia, Poland, and Ukraine. While the share of informal first jobs is highest in Ukraine, the country with the worst institutional mix of high taxes, low policy quality and widespread corruption, we find
similar allocation patterns into informal jobs based on individual resources and employer's characteristics in all three countries. Furthermore, we can show that career damages in terms of lower employment and formal employment chances are most pronounced in Poland, while in Ukraine, the informal sector seems to provide a "parallel economy" of rather secure (or repeated) informal jobs but also lower upward mobility into formal jobs. In contrast, informal sector activity is least stable in Croatia, where subsequent non-employment risks but also ways to formal employment are very pronounced.