Number of young people neither in employment nor in education grows in Mexico

The number of young people neither in employment nor in education or training, known as "Ninis" in Spanish or NEET in English, increased in Mexico in recent years, according to the latest report of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

In the report “Education at a Glance 2015”, the OECD said that 25% of those aged 20 to 24 neither study, nor work, compared to 22% in 2012 and 18% in 2014.

Mexico is ranked 5th among the countries with the highest proportion of NEET, after Spain, Greece, Italy and Turkey.

The report also revealed that “women are more often neither in employment nor in education or training (NEET) than men. Among 20-24 year-olds, 19.4% of women and 16.4% of men were NEET in 2014, on average across OECD countries. In Mexico and Turkey, the gender difference in the shares of 20-24 year-olds who were NEET was around 30 percentage points.”

It added that in some countries, “gender differences in employment among those who have left education are large. For example, in Mexico and Turkey, men work over three years more than women.”

"We are worried about this. These figures suggest that Mexico should continue to strengthen its policies to promote gender equality and the inclusion of more women in the labor market, "said Gabriela Ramos, special adviser to the Secretary General of the OECD, at the report's presentation.

The report also revealed that “in Colombia and Mexico, unemployment rates are higher among tertiary-educated adults (7.4% and 5.0%, respectively) than among those with below upper secondary education (6.2% and 3.5%, respectively)”

Mexico invests 5.2% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on education, a percentage similar to the OECD average.

According to the report, “annual spending per student from primary through tertiary education in 2012 ranged from US$4,000 or less per student in Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Latvia, Mexico and Turkey to more than US$10,000 per student in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom, and by over USD 15 000 in Luxembourg, Norway, Switzerland and the United States.”