Public employment has shrunk, in part owing to privatization or to fiscal stringencies. Domestic service and self-employment are also part of the informal economy, as measured by income. Employment in the informal economy rose in all Latin American countries between 1990 and 1996, according to the report. Employment in the formal economy declined correspondingly. But low productivity constrains income.
Credit is sparse at best.
Basic education, the premise of a sound training system, is not as widely available as needed. Training systems themselves are often inadequately targeted on employer needs, and may be financially starved. Most important, to make such systems viable, economic growth must be spurred so as to reduce unemployment. It remains open, then, whether the paradox of rising skill and continual training needs demanded by the forces of globalization and advancing technologies, and the increasing labor market segmentation and exclusion these forces likewise engender, will not persist.