Diseño Módulo RTPS

i) According to level of education

The employment structure according to level of education (Table 6A.1.4 and Figure 6.3) shows that there has been a general improvement in the education level of workers. In 1970 the proportion of workers with only, at most, primary education was 87 percent of total employment. By 1997 this proportion had fallen to 64 percent. The proportion of illiterates diminished from 18 percent in 1970 to 5 percent in 1997 (decreasing at a rate of 4.4 percent per year), while the share of higher- educated workers did just the opposite, from only 3 percent in 1970 their share increased up to 16 in 1997 (increasing at a rate of 6.2 percent per year). Furthermore, workers with secondary school education doubled their share in the same period. This improvement in the level of education of most Venezuelan workers may lay behind the declining relevance of education (although still high) as an explanatory variable of inequality levels in Venezuela that has been reported by some scholars, and which will be shown in section 6.3.2.

Q. 50 .2 20 i i | _ O (0 □ 1970 ■ 1997 o5 . c c o 03 £

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Figure 6.3 Employment structure according to level o f education, Venezuela: 1970, 1997

Source: OCEI (1997b).

ii) Gender

The female share in total employment has increased in all Latin American countries (Table 6A.1.12). The incorporation of women into the labour market is an expected result that comes along with the process of urbanisation and industrialisation, which demands higher levels of labour in the production process, and thereby draws women into the labour market. But it might also be due to the deterioration of the real income of households. In Venezuela, both process have taken place during the last decades. The urbanisation process was intensified during the 1970s and, by1990, almost 84 percent of the population was urban (OCEI, 1990). Also, since the crisis of the 1980s, real incomes have been deteriorating continuously, as is shown in the next section of this chapter.

80 □ % Males ■ % Females T— c o L o r ^ o i T — c o L o r ^ o ^ c o u î r ^ i ^ h ' t ^ r ^ r ^ o o c o o o o o o o o i c n o î a ) o ) 0 ) 0 ) 0 ) 0 ) 0 ) 0 ) 0 ) 0 ) 0 ) c n o ) o ^ 0 ) years

Figure 6.4 Employment according to sex in Venezuela, 1969-1997

Source: OCEI (1997b).

Some issues are raised when the structure of total employment is broken down into male and female categories, and which are worthwhile to be highlighted. One is that the share of the public sector in total female employment is much greater than the share of the public sector in male employment. Likewise, the proportion of self- employed female workers in total female employment is much less than it is in the case of males (Table 6A.1.6). However, by 1996 and 1997 the proportion of self- employed female workers was greater than the share of the public sector in total female employment. The employment expansion in the public sector during the 1970s and early 1980s, as a result of the oil crisis, was greater in female than in male employment (Tables 6A.1.3 and 6A.1.6). Thus, while the share of the public sector in male employment increased by 7.6 percent, in female employment it rose by 40 percent between 1970 and 1983. Furthermore, since the mid-1980s, when the share of the public sector in total employment started to decrease, it has decreased more rapidly in male employment (3 percent annually) than in female employment (2 percent annually). Since the share of the private sector in male employment has not changed significantly (at least since the mid-1970s) and the share of the self- employed has risen, then the increase in male informal employment may have been related mainly to male employment reduction in the public sector. In the case of

female employment the association seems to be with the private sector, mainly since the recession of 1994.

Since both the share of female workers in total employment and female labour force participation have been much smaller, although increasing, than those of their male counterparts it might be the case that also the share of female workers in total informal employment is much smaller than male workers. Hence, changes in the female labour market might have a much smaller impact on changes in total informal employment. In fact, in 1995, while the female share in total employment was 32 percent (Table 6A.1.5), the female share in formal employment was 42 percent and 29 percent in informal employment. In 1997, the female share in total employment rose to 34 percent and in formal employment to 45 percent, but it remained at 29 percent in informal employment^"^.

Another issue is that female unemployment had been lower than male unemployment in most years since 1969, but that this tendency reversed in 1994; by 1996 the rate of female unemployment was almost 6 points greater than the rate of male unemployment, and by 1997 it was 4 points greater (Table 6A.1.7). This is due in part because of the added worker effect discussed earlier, which might have been stronger on female employment than on male employment. Also, the rapid increase of female unemployment during 1995-1997 is associated with the increase of the proportion of self-employed female workers during the same period. This association is consistent with the direct relationship between informal employment and unemployment during recessions that has already been pointed out.

The comparison of the employment structure according to the level of education of males and females shows that the improvement in the education level of workers, that was mentioned earlier, has been even more accelerated in the case of females than males (Table 6A.1.8). In fact, the proportion of male workers with at most primary education fell from 92 percent in 1969 to 70 percent in 1997, while the same in the case of females fell from 94 to 53 percent. But even more remarkable is that

The fem ale shares in both formal and informal employment were calculated by the author using the raw data provided by the household survey for 1995 and 1997.

the proportion of male illiterates decreased at a rate of 3.5 percent a year, while the proportion of female illiterates decreased at 7 percent. Likewise the proportion of higher-educated men in total male employment increased at a rate of 4 percent, while the proportion of higher-educated women increased at 9 percent. That is, the share of higher-educated women in total female employment increased from only 2 percent in 1969 up to 22 percent in 1997. This rapid increase in the level of education of the female workers, allied with the increasing labour force participation, helps to explain, in part, the declining relevance of the gender variable in explaining overall inequality. This has also been reported by scholars, as will be shown later.