Youth Labor Informality in Colombia
Keywords:
job quality, Colombia, economic development, education, employment, economic structure, labor informality, labor market integration, youth, labor market, probit models, social mobilityMain Article Content
Introduction
Labor informality is a salient feature of developing countries' occupational structure. Although young people exhibit lower informality rates, this is particularly significant given that the quality of first employment shapes their long-term labor market trajectories. Moreover, young people are especially vulnerable during the transition from school to work, within an economic environment characterized by weak labor demand.
Objective
The objective of this article is to analyze the relevance of labor informality among young people in Colombia, and to examine how observable characteristics at the individual, household, and occupational level predict the likelihood that young people will be informally employed.
Methodology
To this end, microdata from the Integrated Household Survey (2019) are used to produce descriptive statistics and estimate models of the probability of informal employment among young people, accounting for potential sample selection bias.
Results
The findings indicate that the probability of informal employment is lower for women, for those who face fewer immediate financial pressures from dependents, for those whose parents have higher levels of education, for those who work longer daily hours, and for those employed in the manufacturing or service sectors.
Conclusions
Educational and labor policies aimed at improving the transition from school to work are essential to prevent a progressive increase in informality rates over the life course. However, many factors beyond young people's immediate living conditions and opportunities also shape the quality of their employment, including their parents' employment status and income, and low social mobility.
Afridi, F., Mukhopadhyay, A. y Sahoo, S. (2016). Female labor force participation and child education in India:
Evidence from the national rural employment guarantee scheme. IZA Journal of Labor & Development,
5(7), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40175-016-0053-y
Becker, G. S. (1962). Investment in human capital: A theoretical analysis. Journal of Political Economy, 70(5),
9-49. https://doi.org/10.1086/258724
Becker, G. S. y Tomes, N. (1986). Human capital and the rise and fall of families. Journal of Labor Economics,
4(3), S1-S39. https://doi.org/10.1086/298118
Berniell, I., Berniell, L., de la Mata, D., Edo, M. y Marchionni, M. (2021). Gender gaps in labor informality:
The motherhood effect. Journal of Development Economics, 150, 102599. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
jdeveco.2021.102599
Bourdieu, P. (2001). Las estructuras sociales de la economía. Manantial.
Castillo, C., Da Silva, J. y Monsueto, S. (2020). Objectives of sustainable development and youth employment
in Colombia. Sustainability, 12(3), 991. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12030991
DANE –Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística–. (2026). Gran Encuesta Integrada de Hogares
– GEIH – 2025. https://microdatos.dane.gov.co/index.php/catalog/853
Dougherty, S. R. y Escobar, O. R. (2019). What policies to combat labour informality? Evidence from Mexico.
Applied Economics, 51(38), 4176-4190. https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2019.1591597
Folbre, N. (1994). Who pays for the kids? Gender and the structures of constraint. Routledge. https://doi.
org/10.4324/9780203168295
Harris, J. y Todaro, M. (1970). Migration, unemployment and development: A two-sector analysis. The
American Economic Review, 60(1), 126-142. https://www.jstor.org/stable/1807860
Heckman, J. (1979). Sample selection bias as a specification error. Econometrica, 47(1), 153-161. https://
doi.org/10.2307/1912352
Hirschman, A. (1980). Auge y ocaso de la teoría económica del desarrollo. El Trimestre Económico, 47(188),
1055-1077. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23395022
Hussmanns, R. (2005). Measuring the informal economy: From employment in the informal sector to informal
employment (Working Paper No. 53). Oficina Internacional del Trabajo. https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/
files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@integration/documents/publication/wcms_079142.pdf
International Labour Organization. (1972). Employment, incomes and equality: A strategy for increasing
productive employment in Kenya. ILO.
Jiménez, D. (2012). La informalidad laboral en América Latina: ¿Explicación estructuralista o institucionalista?
Cuadernos de Economía, 31(58), 113-143. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/2821/282125048006.pdf
Kucera, D. y Roncolato, L. (2008). Informal employment: Two contested policy issues. International Labour
Review, 147(4), 321-348. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1564-913X.2008.00039.x
Levy, S. y Székely, M. (2016). ¿Más escolaridad, menos informalidad? Un análisis de cohortes para México y
América Latina. El Trimestre Económico, 83(332), 499-548. https://doi.org/10.20430/ete.v83i332.232
Lewis, A. (1954). Economic development with unlimited supplies of labour. The Manchester School, 22(2),
139-191. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9957.1954.tb00021.x
Longo, M. E. (2020). Transcending dichotomies: Informal work, young people and the state in
Argentina. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 61(2-3), 101-121. https://doi.
org/10.1177/0020715220905123
Lora, E. (2016). Desempleo femenino en Colombia: Visión panorámica y propuestas de política. En L. Arango
y F. Castellani (Eds.), Desempleo femenino en Colombia (pp. 1-27). Banco de la República.
McKay, A., Mussida, C. y Veruete, L. (2018). The challenge of youth employment in Asia: Lessons from four
fast-growing economies. World Economy, 41(4), 1045-1067. https://doi.org/10.1111/twec.12622
Mora, J. J. y Muro, J. (2014). Informalidad y salarios mínimos por cohorte en Colombia. Cuadernos de
Economía, XXXIII(63), 469-486. https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=282131580008
Neffa, J. C. (Coord.), Oliveri, M. L., Persia, J. y Trucco, P. (2010). La crisis de la relación salarial: Naturaleza y
significado de la informalidad, los trabajos/empleos precarios y los no registrados. Empleo, Desempleo
y Políticas de Empleo, 1, 1-129. https://www.ceil-conicet.gov.ar/publicaciones/empleo-desempleo-y-
politicas-de-empleo/
O’Higgins, N. (2017). Rising to the youth employment challenge: New evidence on key policy issues. Oficina
Internacional del Trabajo. https://www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/WCMS_556949/lang--en/
index.htm
Organización Internacional del Trabajo. (2015). Global employment trends for youth 2015: Scaling up
investments in decent jobs for youth. Oficina Internacional del Trabajo. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/
groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_412015.pdf
Portes, A. y Haller, W. (2004). La economía informal (Serie Políticas Sociales, 100). CEPAL; Naciones Unidas.
https://repositorio.cepal.org/handle/11362/6091
Portes, A. y Schauffler, R. (1993). Competing perspectives on the Latin American informal sector. Population
and Development Review, 19(1), 33-60. https://doi.org/10.2307/2938384
Salas, C. (2006). El sector informal: Auxilio u obstáculo para el conocimiento de la realidad social en América
Latina. En E. de la Garza (Coord.), Teorías sociales y estudios del trabajo: Nuevos enfoques (pp. 130-148).
Anthropos Editorial.
Sánchez-Torres, R. (2020). Poverty and labor informality in Colombia. IZA Journal of Labor Policy, 10(1),
Artículo 6. https://doi.org/10.2478/izajolp-2020-0006
Sánchez-Torres, R. y Mejía, D. (2024). Brechas en remuneración y discriminación laboral por género en
Colombia. En R. Sánchez-Torres (Ed.), Brechas en remuneración y discriminación laboral por género en
Colombia 2008-2016 (pp. 135-166). Universidad de La Salle; Universidad Nacional de Colombia.
Tijdens, K., Besamusca, J. y van Klaveren, M. (2015). Workers and labour market outcomes of informal
jobs in formal establishments: A job-based informality index for nine sub-Saharan African countries. The
European Journal of Development Research, 27, 868-886. https://doi.org/10.1057/ejdr.2014.73
Tokman, V. (2011). Employment: The dominance of the informal economy. En J. Ocampo y J. Ros (Eds.), The
Oxford handbook of Latin American economics (pp. 767-789). Oxford University Press.
Torche, F. (2014). Intergenerational mobility and inequality: The Latin American case. Annual Review of
Sociology, 40, 619-642. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-071811-145521
United Nations. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 agenda for sustainable development (A/RES/70/1).
General Assembly. https://documents.un.org/doc/undoc/gen/n15/291/89/pdf/n1529189.pdf
Downloads
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Revista sociedad y economía editada por la Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Económicas de la Universidad del Valle se encuentra bajo una Licencia Internacional Creative Commons Atribución - No comercial 4.0
Basada en una obra en http://sociedadyeconomia.univalle.edu.co