Youth Work in Mexico: Current Situation and Challenges

The problem of youth work has taken on an unprecedented relevance and visibility at the global level in recent years, largely due to the high and rising levels of unemployment that afflict an increasing number of young people.

However, the problem is not limited exclusively to a shortage of jobs, but goes much further, manifested in a continued quality deterioration of existing jobs, with important implications for workers, especially the younger. In this regard, it should be remembered that work has historically been one of the main channels of inclusion and social mobility, constituting not only the source to obtain resources for the daily survival but of access to a large part of social services and benefits, a status or social position, the development and realization of individuals and, in general, the creation of living conditions.

For the stage of life in which the young are, work acquires additional dimensions. It is a pathway to social life, to the creation of networks and social relationships and to the deployment and demonstration of personal capacities, playing a key role in defining and reaffirming self-esteem and personal identity, creation of perspectives and expectations of future and the achievement of independence and autonomy in different orders of life.

The paper analyzes the current situation and work dynamics of Mexican young. For it, I carry out a longitudinal follow-up of work characteristics of a both sexes panel of young aged 14-24 years interviewed over five trimesters (2016-2017) by the National Survey of Occupation and Employment (ENOE). My interest is on addressing several aspects that give account of job opportunities and the precarious conditions in which young people currently work, so as the continuities and changes throughout the period analyzed. Analysis is performed using some tools from Event History Analysis and of Sequence Analysis.