With regard to unemployment, although the young are delaying their entry into the labor market, the slow speed of net job creation has affected them the most, especially the less educated, even in countries like Costa Rica where unemployment has remained remarkably low, In all three countries, they are generally twice as likely to be unemployed, and remain jobless for increasingly longer periods in Argentina and Costa Rica. Furthermore, unemployed older workers and those with higher education continued to have greater difficulties in being re-employed. The slow speed of creation of high quality jobs for the rapidly expanding group of workers with higher education and their longer unemployment episodes is worrisome. Not only does it imply that a great deal of skill potential is underutilized, but it may also lead younger workers to question the value of a college education as a means of social mobility.

The findings from the (conditional) wage analysis allow us to construct archetypal male groups who have experienced real wage losses or at best lagged behind. In _Argentina:_ middle age workers with higher education or secondary, non-professionals (especially the blue collar), new entrants and those with longer tenure in their occupations, household heads, and the self-employed in retail and personal services. In _Brazil:_ the young and middle age with higher education and older workers with secondary, non-whites, household heads, self-employed, in transportation, communication and utilities, and living in the less developed metropolitan regions. In _Costa Rica:_ older workers with secondary and the young with primary education, nonprofessionals (especially the white collar), self-employed, retail and public sector workers, and those living in the less developed urban areas. Thus, some general patterns emerge for some non-human capital characteristics while the human capital (education) variables are not so clear cut.

The best average wage performers continued to be the young with college or more and all workers with primary education (especially the young) in Argentina, workers with primary education (especially the old) and the young with secondary in Brazil, the young with higher education and older and middle age workers with primary in Costa Rica. In addition, wage growth has been greater for those who are professionals, those employed in construction and social services, and new workers with some experience (in Argentina).

Although we have not attempted to establish causal connections, the above wage growth patterns are only partially consistent with expected reform outcomes. The predictions of standard Hecksher-Ohlin trade theory are consistent with the stronger wage gains of the less educated in Brazil and Argentina, but not with the poor performance of some of the less educated Costa Ricans. Moreover, workers in non-tradables often experience the most wage gains. Similarly, the evidence contradicts the existence of a systematic skill bias in labor demand due to technical change. Although wages of professionals tend to grow faster than those of unskilled workers, the patterns do not easily break down along educational lines, e.g., the young reaped most of the gains of the college educated workers in Argentina and Costa Rica. Whether or not the cross-country differences relate to the scope, phasing and speed of the reform process in these economies deserves further exploration.

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