From the classroom to the workplace: Three decades of evidence for Latin America

This study draws on household survey results spanning a period of three decades in length to analyse young people's entry into the labour market in 10 Latin American countries. It finds that: (i) the employment status of young people had deteriorated over time until seeing an improvement in the late 2000s, although youth unemployment and informality rates are still very high; (ii) young people are entering into a typical employment cycle in which they are surpassing the results obtained by adults of earlier generations. Informality is not a part of this pattern, however, indicating the existence of penalties associated with youth informality. Nonetheless, the outcomes are, for the most part, promising. The author concludes that efforts to improve the position of young people in the workforce should be continued in order to sustain the recent upturn in youth employment.