More than 70% of young people face little job opportunity and low salaries

The UVM COP survey in alliance with Expansion points out that what most afflicts young people is the lack of job opportunities, with 76.4% of the responses, followed by low salaries, with 74.3%.

In these problems, a gender gap opens up; the percentage of women who face them is higher; in the lack of job opportunities it is 79.3% versus 73.5% for men, while in low income it is 78% versus 70.5%.

According to the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO), of young people who seek to participate in the economy, two out of 10 do not look for employment because they consider they have no chance of finding one, or of finding a quality job.

The paradox of opportunities

In Mexico, the youth unemployment rate stood at 5.26% at the end of 2023, which is higher than the national average (2.7%), according to data from the ENOE of Inegi.

The perception of the lack of opportunities for young people in the Mexican labor market is a reality, but there are also companies that are facing a shortage of human talent. For Tania Arita, director of recruiting for Talent Solutions at Manpower Group, this is a paradox.

In the evaluations carried out within Manpower, it is found that 65% of companies say they have problems finding talent, and at the same time, 60% of young people report difficulties finding a job.

“What is happening? What happens is that there are job offers, but employers are not finding the skills they need to fill those positions,” says Arita.

For example, in the technology sector, eight out of 10 companies report that they have difficulties finding their human resources.

Other companies that are seeing this problem are those in the transportation, logistics and automotive sectors.

One factor that the specialist finds important in the face of the lack of job opportunities is that university degrees are becoming obsolete.

“Our university courses or what we study, what worked for me a year ago, is not necessarily going to work for me today, we even see professions or trades that are no longer in use, but that today we have new demands,” explains Arita. .

The IMCO points out that the most studied careers in Mexico have been the same for a decade, this reflects the need to adapt to changing labor demands.

The Manpower expert says that this situation should lead to reflection and that the government, academia and the business sector must resolve together.

In general, he comments that the outlook for young people is one of more opportunities due to the phenomenon of nearshoringthe challenge is to develop more sophisticated skills, and also once young people enter the labor market, they have the challenge of maintaining themselves.