Work, employment and labour markets: Factories, circuits and hard cores of inequality reproduction

Recent achievements in poverty reduction and income concentration make it necessary to gauge how much space there is for Latin America to continue to make strides against one of the factors that is most hindering progress: inequality. Structural heterogeneity, stratification of the fertility decline and gender inequality operate as true factories of inequality in the labour markets of Latin America. Where these factors overlap they form circuits of reproduction of inequalities: the circuit that operates in the gaps between formal and informal workers, the one that links this inequality to gender disparities, the ones that shape differential behaviours among certain groups (such as women and young people) in the face of unemployment and the one that structures inequalities in labour-force participation. This dynamic gives rise to hard cores of inequality and vulnerability that embed in certain sectors, such as young low-income women with small children, low-income young people and workers (especially women) in low-productivity areas.

Sustainable Development Goals:

Gender Equality

Reduced Inequalities

Sustainable Cities and Communities