RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Daughter of a housemaid, 22-year-old Camila Striato Martinez was the first person in her family to complete university. Bruna Klingspiegel, also 22, graduated with a degree in history and completed her post-graduate studies. Bruno Vinícius Moreira Rodrigues, 27, graduated in law three years ago.
However, the diplomas of all three are kept in their drawers. Camila, Bruna, and Bruno are among the thousands of young Brazilians with higher education that the repeated economic crises faced by Brazil in recent years have pushed into low-quality occupations.
In Q1 2020, 40 percent of Brazilians aged 22 to 25 with university degrees were considered overeducated, according to a survey conducted by IDados consultancy. This means there were 525,200 young graduates in occupations that do not require higher education.
Since 2014, youths who either entered or graduated from university have faced a very fragmented labor market. Between 2015 and 2016, there was a strong recession caused by several macroeconomic imbalances and the political turmoil of the Dilma Rousseff government.
The following years were of low Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, insufficient to recover all of the economy’s previous losses. Now, the harsh crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic will aggravate this scenario even more.
“There has been a very extensive training of people with higher education over the past ten years,” says IDados researcher and head of the survey, Ana Tereza Pires. “People who graduated after 2015 faced a crisis scenario, in which they could no longer find a position compatible with their level of study.”
The survey conducted by IDados is based on data from the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD), compiled by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).
“The main driver (for this high level of over-education) was the economic slowdown,” Ana Tereza says. “The economic crisis caused people to be unable to find jobs at levels compatible with their education.”
And the prospects are worse under this current scenario, alerts professor and coordinator of the Ruth Cardoso Chair in INSPER, Naercio Menezes Filho. “The pandemic is resulting in the closing of businesses and a general decline in employment and income in the country. Many of these youths are not managing to find jobs even in the casual sector, so everything they learn in college and high school is being depreciated; they are not using it,” he says.
“This will lead to even lower salaries in the future, and the likelihood of them becoming unemployed is greatly increased,” Naercio says.
The overeducated youths
Across the country, overeducated youths report frustration at not being able to practice the professions they chose for their higher education studies.
Camila Striato Martinez
Camila Striato Martinez, 22, was the first person in her family to complete university. Daughter of a housemaid and a history graduate, she is unemployed and survives with casual work, help from her parents, and the governmental emergency aid. Her dream is to teach.
“At the start of the year, I was interviewed in a few schools and courses, but nothing went far and that’s when the pandemic came,” Camila says. “Now, I’m not working anywhere, I’m unemployed, I’m still looking for jobs in education, but it’s still very difficult.”
For now, there is little prospect that things can improve in this pandemic scenario for Camila. “It’s frustrating to take a course for four years at a renowned university and not have that recognition, that return in the area of employment,” says Camila.
Bruna Klingspiegel
The same scenario is true for the 22-year-old historian Bruna Klingspiegel. She has not been able to find a steady job since 2018. “There’s only internships (for those still enrolled), and after you graduate, it seems like the opportunities are over,” she says.
Bruna also has a graduate degree in dramaturgy but has not seen her opportunities in the job market increase. She then decided to go for a second degree, in journalism.
“I’m surviving with odd jobs and with the money I make every two months, three months,” she says. “I’ m not going to find anything in my area, so I’ m going to have to start digging more, start looking for things that are unrelated to what I graduated in.”
Bruno Vinícius Moreira Rodrigues
Bruno Vinícius Moreira Rodrigues graduated in law three years ago, but only managed to enter the formal labor market as a credit analyst in an agribusiness company.
“I finished (law school) in late 2017, I completed the entire course at ProUni,” says Bruno. “In early 2018, I passed the OAB bar exam, but I have not worked (in the area) since. I did an internship at a law firm, but I was fired because the firm lost a big contract.”
Bruno, who is now 27, still plans to return to his career as an attorney, but for the time being, he cannot reconcile the two activities, nor does he have the security to give up a fixed job: “I don’t have time to keep taking up cases. I take care of two branches of the company where I work, so my time is quite busy.”
Is the university still worth it?
Although the job market scenario is fragile, a higher education course still makes a great difference in Brazil. The unemployment rate is lower among university graduates.
“Having a higher education in Brazil is still a great advantage compared to other workers,” Ana Tereza says. “As much as youths aren’t able to find jobs compatible with their education, it’s important to bear in mind that the unemployment rate among university graduates is much lower than for those with a high school education or less.”
However, the consequence of having trained youths in occupations that require low qualifications is quite perverse for the country. These overeducated workers will have a lower salary than they could achieve and lower productivity, which hampers the country’s growth.
The Brazilian economy is faced with a chronic productivity issue. It has been stagnant for 40 years. In 2019, a typical Brazilian worker produced the same as in 1980.
“We have several problems that explain this low structural productivity,” says Naercio. “We have a problem of human capital, of education. Since early childhood, children receive a low investment to develop their skills, not only in reasoning, in learning Portuguese and mathematics, but in socio-emotional skills.”
The improvement of Brazilian productivity involves several structural issues, according to the INSPER economist, such as improving the quality of education, Brazil’s business environment, and increasing the country’s competitiveness.
“The young Brazilians still lack more qualification, so they can pursue cutting edge careers,” Naercio says. “On the other hand, there is a structural problem in our totally distorted business environment, the lack of competition and infrastructure. If the country doesn’t implement structural reforms to improve international competition, simplify the tax structure, and encourage research and development, Brazil won’t be able to grow.”
Source: G1