page_title: Youth in Guatemala
section_title: Employment
hierarchical_section_title: Youth in Guatemala / Employment
caption_attribution_description: English: PAITA, Peru (May 3, 2011) Lt. Patricia Salazar, from Freemont, Calif., examines a patient's eyes at a Continuing Promise 2011 medical clinic set up by staff assigned to the Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Comfort (T-AH 20). Continuing Promise is a five-month humanitarian assistance mission to the Caribbean, Central and South America. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Brian A. Goyak/Released)
context_page_description: Youth in Guatemala are the largest segment of the nation's population. Youth includes individuals between the ages of 15 and 24 Over half of the population is under 19 years old in 2011, the highest proportion of young people of any country in Latin America. The health, education, and work opportunities for young people differ by ethnicity and social class.
  Male literacy rate is 89.3% and the female literacy rate is 85.6%. Secondary education participation is around 17%. 30.3% of youth are married by the age of 18.
  Poverty and inequality affect a youth's access to healthcare. Females experience less access to health care and education than males. The lack of adequate nutrition and health care in Guatemala has adverse effects on a youth's overall health. One example being stunted growth of half of the Guatemalan youth. The Millennium Development Goals works to these inequalities and barriers.
  Vulnerable youths who are at-risk for joining a gang are males between the ages of living in marginalized urban areas and have limited access to education.
context_section_description: 140,000 Guatemalan youth enter the labor market each year. About 25,000 of those youth gain access to formal employment. Formal employment is often classified as training for the job and social security. It is estimated that jobs in the informal market have reached about 5.1 million. Youth who obtain a degree are not properly utilized in the formal job market, as they are outcompeted by their foreign counterparts. Work after graduation is limited because it is assumed that youth who hold degrees would not be willing to work low paying jobs.
  Within the public sector, youth are discouraged from participation in the workforce because of poor salaries and disincentives. Youth often enter into the informal job market at a young age, sometimes dropping out of school to support themselves or their families. Informal jobs provide youth with income but are untaxed and unmonitored by the state, examples being farmers or domestic workers. These jobs do not provide youth or other individuals with government protections, like insurance. PILAR, a program which stands for Promoting Informal Labor Rights, works to provide more protection for those in the informal sector.
  Open Schools provides leadership training and job training to both youth and adults to help ensure steady income and employment.
  
  The Millennium Development Goals, or MDG's, targets causes of poverty such as gender inequality, education, and environmental stability. "Education and training in business administration and large-scale marketing operations are essential for the youth to join the economic life of the country". MDG's purpose is to prevent youth from entering into poverty by providing educational and economic stability.
caption: Continuing Promise mission in the Guatemalan community
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