According to the Regional State Report, 48% of youth aged 15 to 24 years old is unemployed. The local labour market ...
According to the Regional State Report, 48% of youth aged 15 to 24 years old is unemployed. The local labour market demands more technical knowledge and a second language. However, the report was developed based on data from 2014 and more updated information is urgently needed to make decisions.
There are certain asseverations that are evident: the State must prevent school dropouts and expand training programs for youth. Others demand greater and deeper analysis, considering they are made based on 2014’s figures.
This is the first reflection that arises from the Fifth Report of the Regional Conditions, presented in Guatemala during the Nation’s State Program, appointed to the National Council of Deans (CONARE).
The report claims that Costa Rica is the country in the region with the largest growth of youth unemployment. And it probably is, but more updated information is needed to corroborate it.
Unemployment rate among the economically active population (looking for a job) aged 15 to 19 years old, grew 13.6% in 2001 to 2014, raising from 17.3% to 30.9%.
In addition, unemployment among people aged from 20 to 24 years old grew 6.6% during that period, going from 11% to 17.6%.
According to the National Statistics and Census Institute (INEC), by 2014 there were 99,000 unemployed persons aged from 15 to 24 years old in Costa Rica. They represent half the number of people who looked for a job that year; in other words, 8.5% of the economically active population. During the 1Q 2016, unemployment reached 9.5%.
Always referring to data from 2014, the countries in the region that follow Costa Rica in terms of unemployment rates are Panama and El Salvador (25% each, but the situation in Panama did not deteriorate as much as in El Salvador). Nicaragua is in the 4th place, with 15%; it is followed by Honduras (14%), and Guatemala 9.9%. There is no data from Belize, although the report states there also was an increase.
There is a pressing need to activate different tools internationally available to reduce youth unemployment in the region, while strongly working to tackle informality, which particularly harms young people. Furthermore, an excellent initiative would be to develop a Permanent Observatory for Youth Employability, which would enable gathering relevant information for better decision-making processes.
