If you are looking for a job, it might be a good idea to move to Uruguay, Chile, Panama or Argentina. According to the IDB, these are the countries that lead the Better Jobs Index in Latin America.

A new survey of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) shows what countries have offer the best jobs in the region.

According to the international organization, this survey was performed among people aged 15 to 64 years old in 17 countries and built the Better Jobs Index that measures labour conditions in every market in the region.

Uruguay, Chile, Panama and Argentina are the countries that have the best jobs in Latin America.

These countries are followed by Costa Rica, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Colombia, Bolivia, Dominican Republic, Peru, Mexico, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and, finally, Guatemala.

According to the IDB, the survey measures the quantity and quality of the jobs to determine what countries have the better jobs.

“The quantity dimension analyses how many people want to work (labour participation) and how many actually do work (occupation)”, said Carmen Pagés, chief of the Labour Markets division of the IDB.

“The quality measures the percentage of employment registered in social security (formality) and how many workers have wages that enable them to overcome poverty (living wage)”.

“Every indicator and dimension has the same weight in the index and is measured in comparison to the working age population (excluding those who study full-time)”, she adds.

“Uruguay broadly beats the quality and quantity average in Latin America, reaching a 71.9 score over 100, compared to the 57.1 regional average.

In labour participation it reached 83.5 points, against the 77 points regional average. The occupation rate registered 77 points compared to the 71.3 points of Latin America.

Its’ formality rate is of 59.7 points, clearly higher to the 33.5 regional average, and in the indicator of living wage Uruguay had 67.4 points, against the 46.7 points of Latin America.

Its 3 million inhabitants do not seem to be part of the explanation. “We have small countries in the region that are far behind in the ranking. In Central America there are countries of the same size than Uruguay and it is precisely their size what does not help them” added Pagés.

At the bottom of the list is Guatemala, with 44.9 points, against the regional average of 57.1 points.

The country had 68.6 points in labour participation and 67.1 in occupation, below the regional average (77 and 71.3 points respectively). However, in terms of formality the country is at the bottom of the list, with 13.9 points, while Latin America has 33.5 points and Uruguay 59.7 points. In terms of living wages, Guatemala achieved 30 points against the 46.7 points of Latin America.

“In Guatemala there is a large number of people working, and they work really hard. However, their effort does not provide the necessary results to get a family out of poverty or does not grant social security”, she adds.

“Guatemala has large gender gaps that are partly due to the low female labour participation”, stated Pagés. “In addition, when analysing quality indicators we notice huge gender differences, just like in the case of Costa Rica”.

According to the IDB’s list, Uruguay remains the best country for young people, while Honduras is the one with the worst labour conditions.

Pagés considers that “skills acquired at school quickly stop being useful and instruments are needed to keep on training people (…) As, in the end, more skills lead to more productivity and better jobs”.

Labour informality is the factor that mostly affects employment in Latin America.

“Skills help, but the labour legislation must be improved to have labour costs that suit productivity”, says Pagés.

Uruguay and Panama are the only countries in the region to have ratified ILO’s Convention 181 on Private Employment Services, an instrument that promotes the cooperation between public and private employment services, enabling the formalization of employment and training of skills based on the demand, which reduce skills’ gap.