Different worlds and similar realities: youth employability in the Brazilian Northeast and Southeast

Abstract

The focus of this paper is how certain factors influence the probability of participation into the labor market for young people, ages 15 to 24, in the Brazilian Northeast and Southeast, regions markedly different from each other, in several dimensions. To this end, it is analyzed the relative risk factors and the marginal effects of a logistic function applied to the microdata from the 2012 National Household Sample Survey (PNAD). Despite the socioeconomic disparities between the two Brazilian regions, they showed similarities in the effect of determining factors on employability. It was shown that education and work experience positively influenced the incorporation of youth into the labor market, mainly in the Brazilian Southeast, where one more
year of schooling increases the chance of employment in 16%. Being female has a negative effect on the likelihood of employment, particularly in the Brazilian Northeast, where male youth have double chance of being employed compared to females. Yet, white youth living in the Southeast have 28% less chance of being employed compared to non-whites. These results suggest the paths that public policies could take, specific for each Brazilian region, to mitigate unemployment among young people.

DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0102-30982015000000019