MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

A quarter of Brazilian youth idle

Nearly a quarter of Brazilians in the 15 to 24 age group neither work nor study, reported Monday Folha de Sao Paulo, quoting a paper by an independent think-tank.

Researchers from the Brazilian Institute for Social and Economic Analysis, IBASE, interviewed 8,000 young people from the country's eight largest cities and found that 27.1% of them did not have jobs and were not in school.

IBASE also found out that barely 25.9% of Brazilians in the 15 to 24 age group was employed and 33.6% were still students. The other 13.4% study and work at the same time, according to Ibase.

Brazilian government statistics confirm that nearly one-quarter of Brazil's young people, 23%, don't go to school or work, and 67% have no interest in finding a job.

"It might appear that they are all hanging out on street corners with nothing to do, but many of them are looking for work or participating in social projects. They are not in that situation because they want to be. Some had to leave school, others are seeking work or a place at the university" said Eliana Ribeiro, one of the Ibase paper coordinators.

"They argue that without experience you can't get into the labor market and without having had a job, they can't acquire experience" said Patricia Lanes, an Ibase researcher.

"Often, due to the difficulty of finding a job, they get discouraged and stop looking until the situation improves" added Cimar Azeredo Pereira, who supervises government efforts to track unemployment.