Four of the ten occupations that employ young people the most in the country have low schooling requirements – less than eight years at school. The account considers the number of young people in relation to the total number of workers in a given activity. A similar situation is seen also among the activities with the highest absolute number of workers between 15 and 29 years: four of the top 10 have incomplete elementary school as their most frequent schooling.
The information is in a survey carried out exclusively for Valor by consultancy IDados, based on microdata from the Continuous National Household Sample Survey (Pnad Contínua) for the fourth quarter of 2021, the most recent for the indicator.
Among the activities that appear in the study are pedal- or arm-driven vehicle drivers, call center workers, domestic service workers in general, and elementary building construction workers.
This picture can be seen at a moment in which there is an advance in the level of education of young Brazilians. For the sake of comparison, 14.9% of Brazilian workers between 15 and 29 years already have completed higher education, and only part of them would be old enough to do so.
Adding the 12% of those who have incomplete education, the portion with higher education exceeds a quarter of the workers in this age group (26.9%). In addition, 42.9% have completed high school. The share of those who have only completed elementary school, on the other hand, is much lower, at 17.2%.
The data suggest, according to specialists, that young people enter the market in occupations that contribute little to their professional development and that there is also a mismatch between the advancement of the level of education of young people and the opportunities offered by the labor market.
“There are many young people with a college degree (complete or incomplete) in this age group of 15 to 29 years. However, the occupations that employ young people the most generally require less than this, such as complete high school or even incomplete elementary school. This suggests that there may be a mismatch between the young people’s education and the qualification required for the occupation,” said Bruno Ottoni, a professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) and a lead researcher of the labor market at consulting firm IDados.
The economist, who led the study, said that, far from criticizing the occupations that appear at the top of the list that most employ young people, it is necessary to evaluate that many are activities that give few opportunities for development for young people, compromising the professional future.
“All work is worthy, but the question is what kind of work the market is managing to offer our young people. Are they jobs where they see long-term prospects? Are they jobs where they will be able to take advantage of their education? Our young people are in occupations that are great from a job standpoint, but in general don’t offer long-term career prospects,” he said. “We have more qualified young people, but there is a structural characteristic of the Brazilian labor market that today is not managing to generate better jobs for these young people.”
Along with lower educational requirements, the profile of the occupations presented in the study is also lower paid and more unstable, said Stélio Coêlho Lombardi Filho, a professor with the School of Economics at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA). Young people typically have less experience and end up having to take jobs with lower requirements, usually in sectors such as services and commerce, as well as administrative support, he said.
“With the resumption of the economic activities, young people have managed to find available jobs. But these occupations, in general, have a lot of instability and high turnover, low qualification requirements and low wages,” said Mr. Lombardi Filho, who is also a researcher at UFBA’s Economy of Labor research group. “These young people often manage to overcome the barrier of the first job, but almost always they are in a situation of instability that prevents them from making the transition to adulthood, from having the autonomy to raise a family.”
Despite they usually face greater obstacles to enter the job market due to lack of experience, young people tend to suffer more in moments of crisis such as the current one. Companies tend to take less risk and, therefore, avoid hiring professionals who require higher investments in training, Mr. Lombardi Filho recalled. The professor mentions the so-called “scar effect” — which usually marks the professional trajectory of those who entered the market in moments of crisis.
“This outlook of the occupations that most employ young people reflects not only the bad moment of the economy as a whole, but also the fact that young people are already a very sensitive group in the labor market. They form a group with a higher turnover rate, they have higher unemployment rates, lower salaries, and are more in the informal market. And they accept it, especially because they need to gain experience,” said Solange Ledi Gonçalves, a professor at the São Paulo State University (Unesp).
In her view, there is currently a higher mismatch between the level of education of young people and the qualification of the positions available in the job market, which compromises the capacity of professional growth of young people, as scientific papers on the subject found.
“Papers show that, by accepting a job that is not compatible with their level of education, the young person may have more difficulty in growing in the job market later on, and this can impact their career progression. For example, if you have a higher education, but started working at McDonald’s, you may have more difficulty after getting a junior analyst position, which is more consistent with higher education, because you spent that time there,” she said.
Source: Valor International