For Mexican High School Graduates Finding Formal Employment Is Difficult Laura Poy Solano - La Jornada
go to original April 26, 2014

Some of the main factors that make finding a job difficult in Mexico include: low wages, little to no health and pension benefits, and lack of necessary experience or education.

According to the National Survey of Job Placement for High School Graduates 2012, conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) and in agreement with the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP), 62.9 percent of young adults between the ages of 18 and 20 with high school education believe that their studies were not relevant to major industry sectors.

As for the level of education required for their first jobs, few formal jobs are available. In nearly five out of ten cases formal education was largely optional [MV Note: these are jobs in the "informal economy"], and only 35 percent of those surveyed were required to have high school education. Of those who did get a job, 47.3 percent of regular high school graduates and 39.7 percent of technical high school graduates were not asked about their highest level of education.

It is estimated that just over a million young adults in Mexico who completed high school have found a job. Of these, 478,000 earned between 1,500 [US$115] and 3,000 pesos [US$230] per month in their first jobs, and 200,000 earned less than 1,500 pesos per month.

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