Unemployment in Latin America and the Caribbean in the mid-90's

Abstract

The paper presents a comparative analysis of unemployment incidence and duration in a cross section of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. The analysis of time-series averages of unemployment rates shows that unemployment is heterogeneous across countries, and comparable to the level of developed countries with relatively flexible labor markets. Unemployment has moderately increased, and this is likely to be associated with changes in the relative prices of capital and labor that has resulted in slower employment growth. This has been partly compensated by slower labor supply growth. Labor markets in the region are quite fluid in terms of employment creation and destruction, as the high inflow and low long term unemployment rates show. Inflow rates are very similar across deciles (except for the lowest), but short-term unemployment is more prevalent in the lower ones. This suggests that the fundamental problem that high unemployment groups face do not result from more frequent job destruction (high inflow), but rather from experiencing difficulties finding a new job (low outflow).