Social inequalities in young people’s career paths in Argentina

Abstract

When analysing the process of young people’s entrance to the labour market, the aspects that are usually considered are the level of education, previous working experiences and gender, disregarding a structural dimension such as social background. The purpose of this research is to explore the ways in which social background trace different career paths for young people in Argentina. This article presents a longitudinal perspective, which combines both a quantitative analysis –based on transition matrices built on microdata taken from Encuesta Permanente de Hogares (eph-indec)– and a qualitative analysis of the labour market. This combination of approaches makes it possible to go beyond the analysis of labour transitions based on statistical data and to analyse the processes of youngsters’ entrance to the labour market, thus articulating structural factors and young people’s significations.