Invisibilized Youth in Argentina: The Relevance of Unpaid Work and the Validity of the neet Category

Abstract

This work is framed within the rights approach for studying youth. From this point of view or paradigm, we claim that the NEET category thoughtlessly homogenizes youths that neither study nor work. The aim of this paper is to question the theoretical and empirical relevance of the NEET concept, by revealing the importance of unpaid labor in the youth population. Furthermore, this work shows how gender, age, educational level, household income and children at home can influence youth trajectories. In order to support our findings, we have used the Unpaid Work and Time Use Survey, collected by National Institute of Statistics and Censuses of Argentina in 2013. This finding contributes to make us rethink the way in which the inactivity of young people has been studied until now, as well as to establish new guidelines for public policies which address the youth issue.