During the XX Annual Meeting of the Foundation of the Circle of Montevideo, the most influent Latin-American businessman suggested to fight unemployment with bold labour reforms.

The encounter took place in Paraguay, where top level thinkers met and participated and which’s main topic was “Creating bridges, jobs in the XXI century. New forms.” During such gathering, very interesting concepts about our region’s labour markets were expressed.

Former Uruguayan president, Julio María Sanguinetti, said that a thriving society is achieved if employment and democracy are articulated. “The State must achieve political and legal stability for investors”, he added. Education and employment are great challenges Latin American governments must face.

He also advised that technological innovation destroys some jobs and creates others. For that reason, it is important to have well trained citizens who adapt to changes. On this matter, speakers agreed on saying that the phenomenon of digital illiterates happens in the globalized world. This is a part of the economically active population with a serious lack of knowledge towards technological tools.

Mexican businessman, Carlos Slim, suggested to fight unemployment with drastic labour changes, working three days a week for 11 hours per day and raising the retirement age from 60 to 75 years old, considering that life quality has increased. “Three days working and four days resting”, he suggested.

According to Slim, countries must give priority to those investments which demand a larger number of jobs, such as healthcare and education. Regarding education, Slim stated that traditional education, which teaches people to memorize things, is old-fashioned. “Students must not be domesticated, but trained so they can learn to think. It is not necessary for them to spend so many years studying at universities, those periods of time must be shortened” he pointed out.

He also advised to focus education and training to middle management, preparing technicians and not only engineers.