"The challenge of creating decent jobs for young people"

Last wednesday held the Forum "Thinking of a inclusive Mexico: gaps and employment inequality in Mexico" with the theme "The challenge of creating decent jobs for young people" conducted jointly by the Inter-American Conference on Social Security (CISS ) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). The main messages of the Forum were:

i) In Mexico, the proportion of young people aged between 15 and 29 who neither study nor work ("Ninis") is 15 percent above the average of the countries of Latin America, which is 13 percent.

 ii) The youth population in the country suffers from poverty and low levels of schooling.

 iii) These young people are likely to be recruited by organized crime, since 40 per cent of alleged offenders under federal jurisdiction are for this age group.

 iv) More than half of the unemployed in the country are young, and a quarter of those with a job, work in the informal sector, which leads to precarious employment for this age group.

 v) There is a disconnect between school and labor markets.