Educação e mundo do trabalho juvenil no Brasil: Das formas de precarização dos jovens trabalhadores e sua formação no ensino médio, de 2016 a 2022.

Abstract

The following text presents the relationship between the world of youth employment and education in the context of the latest neoliberal offensive, notably with bourgeois reforms aimed at productive restructuring. These reforms were implemented between 2016 and 2022 through EC nº 95/2016 (Social Spending Ceiling), the High School Reform (Law nº 13.415/2017), the Labor Reform (Law nº 13.467/2017, MP nº 905/2019, MP nº 1045/2021, and MP nº 1046/202), and the Pension Reform (EC nº 103/2019), promoted, not without resistance, by the Temer and Bolsonaro governments. Given this scenario, the study aimed to answer what job opportunities were available for young workers, aged between 18 and 24, in light of global productive restructuring and its demands in Brazil starting from 2016. At the same time, what kind of basic education was offered to qualify these young individuals? The objective is to present an overview of the Brazilian youth labor market for individuals aged 18 to 24, considering the job opportunities available to them and their characteristics during the specified period. The study sought to relate youth employment and high school education as dimensions that dialectically correspond to the totality, using social research supported by historical-dialectical materialism, documentary research on national and international data and reports, and theoretical review on the subject. Under the neoliberal attack on social, labor, and pension guarantees, the precarization of youth employment increased, particularly through intermittent and informal work, mediated by ICTs, as observed among young individuals engaged in delivery work through digital platforms, which significantly grew during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Additionally, an increase in unemployment within this age group was noted, showing a strain on youth labor during the investigated period, due to the intensification of productive flexibility combined with labor and pension deregulation, leading to this fraction of the working class being predominantly engaged in unstable occupations with no security or life prospects.