64% of all young people in Latin America live in poor or vulnerable households, and one in five neither studies nor works, according to the 2017 Economic Outlook report for Latin America, which analyzed the challenges and opportunities of youth in Latin America.
The report was presented by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the Development Bank of Latin America ( CAF) in the XI Business Meeting held prior to the XXV Ibero-American Summit.
Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico have the higher percentages of poverty (over 25%), a phenomenon that affects more women (76%) than men.
This result threatens the social, political and economic developments of the past decade and places youth at a crossroads as they have expectations that have not been met.
The report shows that there is a clear gap between what the productive sector needs from the young population and what they are really capable to offer. Threfore it is urgent to identify current and future market requirements. For this reason, many of the Ibero-American business specialists who attended the meeting recommended the Presidents and heads of State to implement the use of technology in education to prepare young people for “the future”.