Microeconomic Determinants of Underemployment and Unemployment in Ecuador 2019–2022

According to data from the National Occupation and Employment Survey, the participation of women in the economy has been growing, although it is lower than that of men. During the first quarter of 2020, the participation of women nationwide was 44.9% and that of men was 76.4%. The objective of this chapter is to analyze a set of factors and covariates that influence the probability of a woman being employed, unemployed, available and unavailable. Socioeconomic and regional factors are analyzed to explain the estimated probabilities. A Multinomial Logit Model is estimated with data from the first quarters of 2005 and 2020. Schooling favors the labor market insertion process, and the number of children decreases the probability of being employed, while living in more populated localities favors employment. Having economic support and being a young woman decreases the probability of participation. Being a single woman represents greater advantages for being part of the employed population. In the Southwest region, there is a greater advantage for women to be employed than to be unavailable, a fact that could be attributed to the social needs that prevail in states such as Oaxaca, Chiapas, or Guerrero with high poverty rates.

This paper estimates the microeconomic determinants of job´s quality in Ecuador before and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Using data from the National Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment Survey (ENEMDU) from 2019 and 2021, a job quality variable was created. This variable considers characteristics such as labor income, job stability and labor benefits. The empirical methodology consisted on estimating a Generalized Ordered Response Logistic Model (GOLM). The results show a process of precariousness in the labor market in Ecuador, with younger workers, less-educated workers and ethnic minorities being the most affected. Public policy should design programs for youth employment insertion and the prevention and elimination of labor discrimination.

This paper estimates an index of the risk of labour displacement in the face of automation, using datafrom the National Employment and Occupation Survey (enoe) for the years 2005 and 2019. The resultsshow that the risk of displacement due to automation has increased in Mexico, and that women facea lower risk of labour displacement compared to men. It also shows that higher levels of human capitalare associated with a lower risk of displacement. Industrial and clerical workers are most at risk fromautomation, and workers in the north of the country face a higher risk than those in the south.Using the principal components analysis, this work estimates an index of risk of job displacementin the face of automation, with data from the National Occupation and Employment Survey (enoe) forthe years 2005 and 2019. The results show that job displacement risk has increased in Mexico, and thatwomen face less risk of job displacement when compared to men. They also indicate that higher levelsof human capital promote a lower risk of displacement. Industrial and office workers are those mostat risk from automation, and workers in the north of the country face a greatest risk when compared tothose in the south.

BackgroundThe Mexican health system segments access and right to healthcare according to worker position in the labour market. In this contribution we analyse how access and continuity of healthcare gets interrupted by employment turnover in the labour market, including its formal and informal sectors, as experienced by affiliates to the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) at national level, and of workers with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) in Mexico City.MethodsUsing data from the National Employment and Occupation Survey, 2014, and from IMSS electronic medical records for workers in Mexico City, we estimated annual employment turnover rates to measure the loss of healthcare access due to labour market dynamics. We fitted a binary logistic regression model to analyse the association between sociodemographic variables and employment turnover. Lastly we analysed job-related access to health care in relation to employment turnover events.ResultsAt national level, 38.3% of IMSS affiliates experienced employment turnover at least once, thus losing the right to access to healthcare. The turnover rate for T2DM patients was 22.5%. Employment turnover was more frequent at ages 20–39 (38.6% national level; 28% T2DM) and among the elderly (62.4% national level; 26% T2DM). At the national level, higher educational levels (upper-middle, OR = 0.761; upper, OR = 0.835) and income (5 minimum wages or more, OR = 0.726) were associated with lower turnover. Being single and younger were associated with higher turnover (OR = 1.413). T2DM patients aged 40–59 (OR = 0.655) and with 5 minimum wages or more (OR = 0.401) experienced less turnover. Being a T2DM male patient increased the risk of experiencing turnover (OR = 1.166). Up to 89% of workers losing IMSS affiliation and moving on to other jobs failed to gain job-related access to health services. Only 9% gained access to the federal workers social security institute (ISSSTE).ConclusionsTurnover across labour market sectors is frequently experienced by the workforce in Mexico, worsening among the elderly and the young, and affecting patients with chronic diseases. This situation needs to be prospectively addressed by health system policies that aim to expand the financial health protection during an employment turnover event.

This article aims to examine the existence of rule manipulation and moral hazard in the Brazilian Unemployment Insurance Program. For empirical analysis, the rule manipulation test by Cattaneo, Janson and Ma (2016) was used, as well as fuzzy and sharp regression discontinuity. The data was built using data from the National Employment and Unemployment Survey from January 2008 to June 2014 due to the greater homogeneity of the rules for benefit access. Based on the results, the program is an influence on the length of employment of Brazilian workers given the existence of rule manipulation, assessed by the length of stay in the last job. Furthermore, it was found that heads of families and their children were less likely to search for employment. This findings were corroborated when data from the program beneficiaries only was assessed, showing a lower job search probability, between -21.80 p.p. and -15.08 p.p. for the children, and between -39.40 p.p. and -28.50 p.p. for the heads of families. Thus, it is possible to confirm the existence of both rule manipulation the access of the program, as well as moral hazard, which points to the need to restructure the program, and above all, have less influence on the national labor market.

Introduction The Human Capital Theory exposes that inequality in labor income is due to different factors, including productivity and education. Objectiveanalyze income inequality in the Ecuadorian labor market. The research takes data from the National Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment Survey of INEC estimating the Mincerian equation (1974) by adding dummy variables.Materials and methods The research takes data of secondary information that rests in the ENEMDU survey updated to December 2018 that includes the characteristics of the EAP in Ecuador. Resultscharacterization of the gender variable, schooling positively influences their hourly wages. Discussion Regarding the gender variable, this long term of not correcting the salary differences may have an impact on old age. ConclusionsWhen there is gender discrimination, it is imperative to identify and quantify the jobs and professions to which women have access in a lesser proportion.

PurposeThis study aims at estimating the gender wage gap in Ecuador, and its evolution over the last decade and a half, exploring its heterogeneity through different working conditions (formal/informal, full employment/underemployment, short term/long term and tenure/no tenure) and workers personal characteristics (education level; age and children).Design/methodology/approachPropensity score matching (PSM) and coarsened exact matching (CEM) are used to examine the gender pay inequality of wage earners in Ecuador, using the National Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment Survey (ENEMDU) data set from 2007 to 2022.FindingsResults show a persistent gender pay gap, evidencing a significant heterogeneity through the different dimensions taken into account, in terms of working conditions and workers personal characteristics. The evolution of the pay gap during the years analyzed hardly shows any reduction of differences in earnings between men and women; on the contrary, women exposure to precarious and unregulated jobs seems to be increasing wage inequality.Practical implicationsThe results make the case for active policies oriented not only at containing the negative effects of the traditional division of labor within the family but also at improving labor law enforcement, mitigating informality and workers rapid turnover.Originality/valueThis study is one of the few that use matching techniques to study the gender wage gap and the first in Ecuador; the time span taken into account is larger than previous studies, allowing a medium-long run perspective across different economic phases.

Introduction Work includes schooling and experience as explanatory variables of the level of salaries; It has been considered important to incorporate others in this research, these being: gender, area where the work activity takes place and having knowledge of another language. Objective of the present investigation is to analyze income inequality in the Ecuadorian labor market. Materials and methods The research takes data from the National Employment, Unemployment and Underemployment Survey of INEC estimating the Mincerian equation (1974) by adding dummy variables. Results the estimations allow to conclude that there is actually female and rural discrimination with respect to the salaries that the masculine gender has and in general of the workers who come from residential zones. Discussion. all the variables included in the model, experience is the one with the lowest incidence, anyway Conclusions establishes that the result is consistent with what the Ecuadorian legislation indicates, specifically the Internal Control Regulations.

The paper explores how integration of return migrants into the labour market of their home country is influenced by the migration experience – does it give an advantage to returnees? Migration literature tends to focus on individual level factors such as human capital acquired abroad, to explain the success of the integration of returnees while somewhat neglecting the importance of the environment in their home country. This paper demonstrates that such structural factors as information asymmetry between a potential employer and a potential employee (in this case job-seeking returnee) as well as the perception of migration experience in the home country’s labour market should be also taken into account. The paper draws on an empirical study of the Lithuanian case. Consequently, the return migrants are defined as individuals who left Lithuania to reside permanently abroad for a period of at least one year after 1990 but were living permanently in Lithuania when the research was carried out. The main data sources of the research are three representative surveys carried out in 2013: a Lithuanian population survey (N = 1930), a survey of migrants who have returned to live in Lithuania (N = 804), and a survey of Lithuanian employers (N = 1000)52. The research revealed that almost all return migrants have acquired valuable knowledge and skills while abroad, which they expect to use in advancing their careers in Lithuania. As many as eight out of 10 migrants who have returned to live in Lithuania said that while abroad they improved some of their skills. Yet the returnees, in assessing whether the migration experience helped them in their employment in Lithuania, frequently stated that their emigration experience had no effect or even thought that it was a disadvantage and that their new knowledge and skills are undervalued in Lithuania. Correspondingly, over 60% of respondent employers indicated that migration experience would have no effect on their choice of employee, and one in ten employers stated that this would be a disadvantage. As could have been expected, there exists some heterogeneity in assessments of benefits of migration experience. For example, employers are relatively more positive about the experience gained abroad doing skilled work and less positive about doing unskilled work. Companies linked to other countries through their capital, market and business relations are also relatively more inclined to opt for returning migrants. However, it should be noted that more than half of employers do not view even skilled work abroad positively, and most of internationally oriented companies when hiring a new employee would choose one with work experience and education acquired in Lithuania rather than abroad. The paper argues that an important factor for ignoring the experience of returning migrants in the labour market is a somewhat unfavourable attitude towards return migrants and their migration experience present in the Lithuanian society and among employers. More than half of employers in Lithuania and almost half of the population of Lithuania agree with the statement that usually those who have failed abroad return to Lithuania. So, return is like a signal of failure, and employers who support this opinion are more likely to assess the migration experience as a disadvantage rather than an advantage. Thus, in order to better understand the processes of return migration and integration of returnees, attention must be paid to whether the home country’s labour market is returnee-friendly or unfriendly. Regardless of how much human capital return migrants bring from abroad, the successful integration of returnees is unlikely if their migration experience is not considered as an asset by the home country’s labour market. The returnee-unfriendly environment leads not only to the loss of potential benefits of human capital, but also to the unsuccessful reintegration of returnees and, eventually, to their repeat migration. Therefore, the Lithuanian migration policy which aims mainly at encouraging return migration, instead of focusing largely on the migrants themselves and their migration decisions, should devote much more attention to the integration process of returnees and include measures for making labour market more returnee-friendly.

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the effects of economic inequalities on the economy and society as a whole. Prior studies on economic inequality have addressed inequalities of economic achievement such as wages and incomes. Considering the discussion of modern political philosophers on inequalities, recent economic studies have distinguished between inequalities in economic achievement, on the one hand, and inequality of opportunity and inequality of effort, on the other (Roemer 1993, 1998; Fleurbaey 2008; Fleurbaey and Maniquet 2011; Roemer and Trannoy 2016). An economic achievement of an individual is a final outcome that combines effects of the individual’s environment (or opportunity) with effects of her effort. Inequalities of achievement can be divided by the inequality of opportunity and the inequality of effort.

BackgroundThe third Sustainable Development Goal aims to ensure healthy lives and to promote well-being for all at all ages. The health system plays a key role in achieving these goals and must have sufficient human resources in order to provide care to the population according to their needs and expectations.MethodsThis paper explores the issues of unemployment, underemployment, and labor wastage in physicians and nurses in Mexico, all of which serve as barriers to achieving universal health coverage. We conducted a descriptive, observational, and longitudinal study to analyze the rates of employment, underemployment, unemployment, and labor wastage during the period 2005–2017 by gender. We used data from the National Occupation and Employment Survey. Calculating the average annual rates (AAR) for the period, we describe trends of the calculated rates. In addition, for 2017, we calculated health workforce densities for each of the 32 Mexican states and estimated the gaps with respect to the threshold of 4.45 health workers per 1000 inhabitants, as proposed in the Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health.ResultsThe AAR of employed female physicians was lower than men, and the AARs of qualitative underemployment, unemployment, and labor wastage for female physicians are higher than those of men. Female nurses, however, had a higher AAR in employment than male nurses and a lower AAR of qualitative underemployment and unemployment rates. Both female physicians and nurses showed a higher AAR in labor wastage rates than men. The density of health workers per 1000 inhabitants employed in the health sector was 4.20, and the estimated deficit of workers needed to match the threshold proposed in the Global Strategy is 70 161 workers distributed among the 16 states that do not reach the threshold.ConclusionsWe provide evidence of the existence of gender gaps among physicians and nurses in the labor market with evident disadvantages for female physicians, particularly in labor wastage. In addition, our results suggest that the lack of physicians and nurses working in the health sector contributes to the inability to reach the health worker density threshold proposed by the Global Strategy.

BackgroundPrecarization of labor conditions has been expanding over the last three decades as a consequence of global economic transformations. The health workforce labor market is exposed to these transformations as well. In Mexico, analyses of the nursing labor market have documented high levels of unemployment and underemployment; however, precarization has been not considered as a relevant indicator in these analyses. In this study, precarization is analyzed using a quantitative approach to show its prevalence and geographic distribution between 2005 and 2018.MethodsA repeated cross-sectional study was carried out with data from the population-based National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE in Spanish) which is administered quarterly to people 15 years or older in over 120 000 households. All individuals who reported having nursing training (technical or university level) were selected for this study. Our main variable was labor precariousness, which included three dimensions: (i) economic, (ii) regulatory, and (iii) occupational safety. We show the evolution of the relative weight of nursing activity between the years 2005 and 2018, the main socio-demographic characteristics of nurses as well as their main labor conditions, and the geographic distribution of precariousness for the 32 federal states in México.ResultsFour of the five indicators of labor precariousness increased among the group of nurses analyzed: (a) the percentage of people with no written contract, (b) the percentage of people with incomes lower than two times the minimum wage, (c) the percentage of nurses without social security, and (d) the percentage of nurses without social benefits. The percentage of nurses that work under some condition of work precariousness increased from 46% in 2005–2006 to 54% in 2018. Finally, the number of states with high precariousness level increased from seven in 2005–2006 to 17 in 2018.ConclusionsThroughout Mexico, nursing precariousness has expanded reaching 53% by 2018. The advancement of precarization of nursing jobs implies a reduction in the capacity of the Mexican health system to reach its coverage and care goals as nurses represent 52% of all available workers that provide direct services to the population.

This chapter presents an analysis of labor informality in Mexico. It provides a discussion of different theoretical approaches explaining the phenomenon and performs an empirical exercise. The exercise includes a description of various labor market indicators and the estimation of a logistic equation. For the latter it considers information from the National Occupational and Employment Survey (ENOE) for the first quarter of 2015. The results suggest that the probability of becoming an informal worker decreases as individuals acquire more education or live in urban areas. Women are more likely to join the informal labor market relative to men. Searching for additional employment also increases the probability of entering informality.

One of the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2015-2030 agenda establishes guaranteeing equal remuneration between women and men for work of equal value. This objective is taken up in the 2018-2024 nation project for Mexico. In the project, the Federal Government aims to eliminate inequality gaps between women and men, as well as the obstacles that women face in all areas. The objective of this research is to estimate the Gender Wage Gap in the formal and informal sector of the labor market of the country and the state of Coahuila in the period of the COVID-19 crisis, to observe the trend of wage differences in the period 2019 – 2022. Mincerian wage equations (1974) were estimated for each gender with data from the National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE), for subordinate workers. The variables considered the sector in which the employee works and the condition of the working day. The Gender Wage Gap was estimated using the Blinder and Oaxaca (1973) methodology, with selection bias correction (Heckman, 1979). It was observed that the Gender Wage Gap in the context of crisis generally tended to close, this was because in the formal and informal sector the salary difference for women tended to decrease in 2020, while in 2022, during the economic recovery the Gender Wage Gap returned to the parameters of 2019 both nationally and in the state of Coahuila.

The conditions of the Mexican labor market during the Covid‐19 pandemic went through different stages. The government first declared a quarantine that lasted for several months, the effects of which continue to be quantified. In that sense, this article answers two questions, (1) what are the changes in labor formality rates before and 2 years after the Covid‐19 pandemic began in Mexico?; and (2) are there differences in economic sectors and between genders? We use the methodology proposed by Chacaltana and McMillan to measure the variation in the labor formality rate in its two components, (1) intrasectoral; and (2) intersectoral, through 9 quarterly editions of the National Occupation and Employment Survey. The results show that in the first 2 years of the pandemic and especially during the time of confinement, labor informality was not a means to maintain household income, as had happened in other economic crises. Likewise, important sectoral effects were found, with the most affected industries being nonessential ones. Finally, gender gaps widened, with women being the most affected in the formal and informal labor market due to pre‐existing conditions that were aggravated by the pandemic.