According to a report developed by three international organizations, around 30 million youngsters do not work nor study. The elevated levels of university dropouts generate barriers to employment.

Over a 100 million Latin American youngsters -64% of the total number- live in poor or vulnerable households, and one out of five -30 million- are NEETs: neither in employment, education or training.

This data emerges from the report “Latin America Economic Outlook 2017”, which analyses challenges and opportunities for the Latin American youth. The study was developed by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), the Development Bank of Latin America (CAF), and de Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) during the 9^th Business Meeting, prior the 25^th Latin American Summit. The summit was developed in Cartagena, Colombia, under the motto “Youth, education and entrepreneurship”.

In Latin America, there are over 163 million people aged between 15 to 29 years old. This represents a quarter of the population in a region that is going through a deceleration period.

According to the report, the economic slowdown endangers the social, political and economic advances made over the past decade and leaves young people at a crossroads, with the creation of expectation that could not be satisfied.

During 2015 and 2016 there were average negative economic growths in the region, and only a slight rise is expected in 2017.

As a consequence, “seven million Latin Americans have fallen into poverty in 2015”, which affects over 175 million people, 29.2% of the  entire population. In addition, in this context, between 25 and 30 million Latin Americans run the risk of falling back into poverty, states the report.

Currently, “over 64% of Latin American youth –over 100 million people- live in poor or vulnerable households and have not been able to integrate to the middle classes. One fifth of youngsters have informal jobs, while the unemployment rates are three times higher among youth (11.2%) than among adults (3.7%). Furthermore, the most vulnerable youngsters leave school before than the wealthier sectors of population, and when they turn 29 years old, almost three out of ten are NEETs.”

The document claims that “one out of five youngsters in Latin America do not have a job, are not studying nor in training. There are almost 30 million people in this situation.”

The highest rates can be found in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico (over 25%), and the phenomenon affects women (76%) more deeply than men.

In addition, there is an elevated secondary education dropout rate and over two thirds of young people in the region have not complete university or technical superior education.

Another consequence is that around 50% of companies cannot find properly trained workers, a problem that is particularly pressing in Peru, Brazil and Mexico. In order to promote opportunities, the OECD suggests fostering entrepreneurship as a tool for development. However, in Latin America there is a “coexistence of few high growth entrepreneurs and plenty of subsistence entrepreneurs”, while public expenditure in entrepreneurship programs is scarce: 0.04% of the GDP vs 0.07% of OECD.

Due to the crisis, the number of vulnerable people has risen

For the second year in a row, the GDP growth in Latin America will be negative in 2016, setting between -0.5% and -1%, according to OECD, ECLAC and CAF.

“The weak perspectives of global growth, the low prices of commodities and the difficulties to get financing have diminished the region’s growth potential”, claims the report.

Latin America had not experienced two years in a row of economic slowdown since the 1980’s. This situation has set “challenges to protect and continue recent socioeconomic advances, particularly the reduction of poverty”.

In this context, near 7 million Latin Americans have fallen into poverty, which now affects 29% of the population. Besides, between 25 and 30 million citizens more are now in a situation of vulnerability.