According to the survey EY Diario Financiero, developed for the 6th year in Chile, 42% of companies plan to do staff cutbacks. In addition, 75% of the executives surveyed have a negative vision of the labour reform. This are the most negative results since the survey was first implemented.

The percentage of survey respondents who think that their sales will decrease went from 7% in 2015 to 21.6% this year.

Companies that expect to hire staff went from 16.3% to 6.7%.

The greatest consensus among businessmen is on issues linked to the labour reform. Around 60% think it will damage the work environment and over 74% have a negative perspective on the reform.

Specialists think that the adjustment process is not over yet.

In this context, a total number of 2,019,914 youngsters aged 15 to 24 years old are unemployed or inactive, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) on the March-May rolling quarter. In other words, they represent 31.2% of the entire population in that age group. This reveals the harsh reality they live and the constant challenge it poses for public policies.

Even though the national unemployment rate went up to 6.8% in the last survey, among young people aged 15 to 19 it went up to 24.3%, a trend that has been growing since the January-March rolling quarter (19.6%). The segment has reached its highest unemployment level since the period November-February 2016 (26.6%). In the case of young people aged 20 to 24 the figures also have been growing since December-February 2016 (12.5%) to 15.2% in the last measuring.

In the unemployment rate among young people, women always show higher figures (the same occurs among adults). Therefore, between 15 to 19 years old, men have reached 22% unemployment rate in the March-May rolling quarter, while women reached 27.8%. Between 20 and 24 years old, men registered a 14.2% rate, while women showed 16.8%. According to specialists, these differences are the result of the “stigma employers have in Chile of women having two loyalties –with work and with their home- as well as the risk of them becoming pregnant”. A cultural issue that holds discrimination.

This discouraging overview is completed with the fact that, among OECD countries, Chile is one of the countries with the largest number of NEET youth (Neither in employment, education or training), reaching around 600 thousand youngsters. Furthermore, it shows a major gender gap in this segment. Among youth aged 20 to 24 years old, NEET women reach 26.7%, while men register 15.4%. Something similar happens with kids who go from 15 to 19 years old; male NEETs score 10.2%, while women register 15.4%.