Population growth, labor by youth and unemployment: the recent experience of the Metropolitan Area of Porto Alegre, Brazil

Abstract

This article studies to what extent the relative size of the young population in the Metropolitan Area of Porto Alegre (RMPA) affected employment and unemployment of this group between 1993 and 2004. This question has taken on considerable importance, based on two different factors. The first is the fact that a number of studies have indicated the occurrence of the phenomenon of a wave of youth in the largest metropolitan areas in the country during the 1990s. Secondly, the concomitant trend toward higher unemployment among youth during this same period. The article is organized in the following way: after the Introduction, Section 2 presents a synthesis of the arguments regarding the effects of the relative size of the cohort of youth on the situation of this group in the labor market. Section 3 identifies the main trends of the younger population within the labor market in the RMPA and estimates the effects of the relative size of this cohort on the employment and unemployment of this population group. Finally, the main conclusions of the study are presented.