Qualification and opportunity: an analysis of the relationship of education and labour market in Latin America in the 90's and 2000's

Gabriel Borges, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE)

Most Latin American countries experienced during the 90’s an expansion of schooling. Despite these progresses, it was observed that the labour market in the same period has gone through deep changes and was not able to absorb all labour-available. In recent years has been noticed, in addition to the continuity of advances in education, the restructuring and planning of the labour market, showing a recovery of the main labour indicators. This article attempts to evaluate in what extent and under what circumstances the increase in the education levels of the population implies an improvement in labour market conditions. We used a method of decomposition of the variation in employment and formality rates. Preliminary results show how complex is the influence of education on the dynamics of the labour market, indicating that we should not minimize its importance, nor establish an autonomous relationship in which the education influence directly on the labour market variables.