Effects of the initiative Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro on the Mexican youth labor market

Resumen

Mexican youth face a worrying outlook regarding their integration into the labor market. These demographic experiences precarious wages and a high probability of ending up in the informal market. In response to the problems of the youth labor market, the public initiative Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro (JCF) was created. This article’s analysis applies a linear regression technique to estimate the effect of the number of program beneficiaries on levels of youth labor informality and poverty within this same cohort, additionally comparing these results with linear estimates of the effect of Foreign Direct Investment on those dependent variables. During the analysis, it was found that the only statistically significant effect was that of foreign direct investment on levels of youth informality, with a  of 0.06 for the t-student test. The set of results obtained could be explained both by the structure of the Mexican economy and by some potential areas of improvement within the JCF program, particularly the lack of training in skills demanded by the labor market for its beneficiaries. Nonetheless, this article’s analysis is a mere exploration and future research, using longitudinal data, is necessary.