Each time an object is serialized the object is stamped with a version ID number for the object's class.This ID is called serialVersionUIDserialVersionUID and it is computed based on information about the class structure. Suppose you made an Employee class and it has version id #333 (assigned by JVM),Now when you will serialize the object of that class (Suppose Employee object), JVM will assign UID to it as #333.
Consider a situation - in the future you need to edit or change your class and in that case when you modify it, JVM will assign it a new UID (Suppose #444). Now when you try to deserialize the employee object, JVM will compare serialized object's (Employee object) version ID(#333) with that of the class i.e #444(Since it was changed). On comparison JVM will find both version UID are different and hence Deserialization will fail. Hence if serialVersionID for each class is defined by programmer itself. It will be same even if the class is evolved in future and hence JVM will always find that class is compatible with serialized object even though the class is changed. For more Info you can refer chapter 14 of HEAD FIRST JAVA.