Unemployment is particularly difficult for young people, under age 24, without college. This population represents 35% of the unemployed in 2018. Women and inhabitants of rural areas with low education also have great difficulty finding employment.
86,500 people under age 24 who did not finish high school or did but did not go on to college were unemployed last year. The opportunities for under-24s without college are worst in the Central Pacific, southern zone, Chorotega and the Caribbean regions.
Of those 86,500 people, 56% had no secondary education and 30.3% finished high school but did not continue their studies. There were only 224,000 jobs to offer under-24s with low academic profiles last year. 65% of them went to men. These jobs were mostly in the secondary sector. They included fields like commerce, transport, storage, tourism, repair, and minor administrative activities.
Last year, the generation of jobs increased by 7.4% but the workforce increased even more, at 9.2%. This means that although new jobs were created, unemployment was not reduced.
