The young women Latin america who neither study nor work, calls ninis, reach about 12.5 million, the 27% of the total population, according to the study, Millennials in Latin America and the Caribbean: do you work or study? that will be presented this Thursday in Santiago de Chile. The men are about 7.5 million, or 14%. The phenomenon of ninis “is highly femenizado”, indicates the research which surveyed 15,000 individuals between the ages of 15 and 24 years in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Haiti, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. “In all countries, the proportion of women who are not embedded neither in the educational system or the labour market more than doubles the fraction of men in this situation”, indicates the project of the foundation of the Public Space (Chile), funded by the inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the International Centre for Development Research of Canada.
The gender gaps are fired in some countries. In Mexico, 34% of young people are ninis, but the figure falls to 15% for men. In El Salvador, women nini represent the 30%, against 18% of men. In Brazil, the ninis represent 28% of the total, 10 points more than men. “Adolescent pregnancy in women is essential to explain the phenomenon. Latin america has high rates, although they have been reducing in time”, explained the chilean Andrea Repetto, researcher and co-editor of the study. “Unlike men, who come in and out of work, women are ninis in a permanent way, because something prevents them from”, he adds.
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The report indicates that the majority of young people who had children in adolescence is nini and only a small percentage is devoted exclusively to study. “The statistics collected by the survey reveal, also, that those who had children early and only work, they are mainly men, while those who had children at adolescence and today do not study or work, are mostly women,” says the book.
When in the region is almost no quality information on this sector of the population, the research provides relevant data to be able to integrate them. According to Repetto, the millennials, are the object of prejudices and stereotypes. “If you type in the search engine the phrase ‘millennials are’, appears suggestions as ’the worst generation’, ‘stupid’ or loose”, exemplifies. The research debunks myths: “As the ninis are young people who wake up at two in the afternoon, look at his cell phone, and have nothing to do during the day.” The economist says that, on the contrary, “they sleep the same amount of hours than the rest.”
The study indicates that, of the total of ninis, 31% are looking for work (especially men), 64% was dedicated to the care of family members (mainly women), and almost all perform chores or provide assistance to the businesses of their families (95%). “These are people who are not active in the labour market, but are active in perform actions that Betxlarge are valued by their respective environments. The women are in the house, doing domestic chores, caring for others,” adds Repetto.
The study provides a picture of the situation of young people face a labour market that is challenging. With the intention to analyze if this new generation is sufficiently formed to the challenges –the tsunami of technology, the massive arrival of robots and the growth unstoppable artificial intelligence, among others– we measured the cognitive abilities of those born in the region between 1993 and 2004. The results were not at all encouraging, because they show a lap important: around 80% do not speak English with fluency, and 40% of millennials in Latin american is not capable of performing simple mathematical calculations and useful for daily life, how to divide an amount of money in equal parts. The country with the worst performance on this last point is Brazil –”it’s funny, because it has a compulsory education longer, but young people drop out,” says Repetto–, while the best is Colombia.
At a general level, Latin american, appears again the gender gap: “women do not have differences in language with the men or spatial skills, but systematically do worse in math,” says Repetto.
Mexico, El Salvador and Brazil, to the head
The study aims to understand what is behind the choice between entering the labour market or to remain in the education system. The picture is not entirely discouraging. Although 20% of millennials are nini –Mexico, El Salvador and Brazil lead the regional figures–, a 41% study, 21% were working and 17% performed both activities. With respect to cognitive skills, the young people have deficiencies in math or English, but have great skills for the use of digital technologies (with the exception of Haiti).
In relation to socioemotional skills –because the study measures this type of variable, less– conventional, millennials Latin american samples, high levels of self-esteem, self-efficacy and perseverance. Among the nine countries studied, Colombia presents the highest ratings, while Haiti is the lowest.
Given the x-ray on this group of the population -100 million people in the region are between 15 and 24 years, and 20 million of them are ninis–, the authors made several recommendations to governments for their productive integration into society. “On the quality of education, we must organize the system in a different way to get the learning that young people are not achieving in Latin america. Than 20 years don’t know split, is a problem,” says Repetto. “But it would be interesting to design public policies in the light of the information that we have found. For example: if the millennials have the technological skills developed and the difficulties to get out of the house, so why not offer them training modules through digital devices?”, proposed.
