By Christian NinahuancaThe Minister of Labor and Employment Promotion (MTPE), Daniel Maurate, foresee that the building of infrastructure megaprojects will boost the formal labor market in Peru in 2025 and labor formality will exceed 30 %.
In an interview with the Oficial Gazzete El Peruano, Daniel Maurate, tell us about the main achievements of the labor sector and what’s coming the next year.
What is your overview of the labor sector at the end of this year?
The overview is very good, although of course, there is always more to do. I think that, more than employment in the short term, we have begun to work on the future of the country and one of the issues that had not been seriously addressed is human capital. For the most part, governors, mayors and government officials have been more concerned about infrastructure, which is very good, but we must not forget about human capital, and I think that is where there is a historical weakness.
However, the Peruvian economy is growing…
When one looks at national production, we realize that Peru will grow more than all countries, that is why the most important officials of the World Bank highlight our management of inflation and the fact that we were able to quickly get out of the recession. All of this makes us very happy, but our weakness is the productivity of human capital, and that is why we have been committed to working hard on this issue, the results will be seen in the medium term.
Another important problem is labor informality…
Labor informality is also a structural issue and has many causes. We have had to do an analysis of informality in Peru and one of the causes is the low transition of young people to higher education, because only 25 % of the youth population advance in his educational formation and enters to study at an institute or a university, while 75 % of young people do not go on to higher education and this issue has worsened in recent years.
That 75% of young people who did not have access to higher education will basically depend on the skills given to them by school and will try to find employment in the informal labor market.
How much will the demand for employment grow in 2025?
According to the Occupational Demand Survey that we presented with the International Labor Organization (ILO), there will be more or less 470,000 new jobs in the formal labor market in Peru by 2025, which is actually a record because it is 48 % more than is registered this year. That is important if we take into account that 4.3 million Peruvians are on the payroll, another record figure because we have never had that number of private sector workers on the payroll.
So, if we add the public sector with more or less 1.6 million, we have almost 5.9 million workers on the payroll. But the important thing is that next year there will be more employment. This survey is very precise because it was done with the same employers and more than 8,000 companies of more than 20 workers each one on their payrolls participated.
Will labor formality increase in 2025?
Without a doubt, we will exceed 30 % of workers in the formal sector (currently it is almost 29 %) and it will be something important for Peru because this is a figure that we have not been able to surpass.
What are the profiles that will be in greatest demand next year and the following years?
The demand for work will be basically for occupations related to engineering, information technology and computing, both for university professionals and technicians. It is also good to point out that the income or remuneration of technicians who are on the payroll have in many cases exceeded those of university degrees.
Young people who have recently graduated from technical degrees related to mining, oil or metallurgy can earn from 6,500 soles to 11,300 soles (US$ 1,741 to 3,027); while a young graduate of Medicine can earn between 6,500 soles and 9,000 soles (US$ 1,741 to 2410). In other words, the top technical degree in the formal labor market today is paying more than the top university degree.
And that is important as information so that young people see that there is not only an option to finish high school with university, but that there are also other alternatives in technical degrees that take less time in the formative stage and are well paid.
What actions will you take to train young people so that they can be ready to meet the labor demand that will be generated by large projects such as the port of Chancay and others?
This is a challenge for the Government and the labor sector because we have fought to achieve labor demand. We have installed the Employment Center at the headquarters of the Ministry of Labor, which makes efforts to call companies and have them present their labor demand to us in order to activate our training and intermediation programs aimed at incorporating more people into the formal labor market. However, for 2025 the challenge is greater.
Although we are now fighting to incorporate 3,000 young people into the formal labor market, only at the Jorge Chávez Airport 121,000 new jobs will be generated, and we have had to make agreements with the company that is in charge of the air terminal. In addition, we make specific agreements with companies such as Talma to invest in training in accordance with the specific labor demand.
Will it be through the Jovenes Productivos (Productive Youth) program?
With our Jovenes Productivos program, we first get them the job and then the training, in alliance with the company. The objective is to insert them into the formal labor force.
Next year will be intense and with a lot of presence of the Productive Youth program. We hope that this generation will make a huge difference against those who have chosen the wrong path of crime, extortion or contract killing.
More data
- According to the Occupational Demand Survey (EDO), the formal business sector will create 470,000 jobs in 2025.
- 54.8 % of these positions will be in extractive activities (agriculture, fishing and mining), 25 % in services, 8.4 % in industry, 6.4 % in construction and 5.3 % in commerce.
- Metropolitan Lima, Ica, La Libertad, Piura and Lambayeque will be the regions that will create the most jobs.
- The Minister Maurate announced the creation of a registry of informal workers, which will include self-employed workers, in order to implement a virtual platform for jobs, similar to what the telephone yellow pages used to be.
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Publicado: 23/12/2024