Mean Age at First Job in Brazil: The Case of Metropolitan Areas

Maria C Tomas, University of California, Berkeley
Ana Oliveira, Centro de Desenvolvimento e Planejamento Regional (CEDEPLAR)

This paper analysis the mean age at the first job, comparing males and females in six metropolitan areas in Brazil: Belo Horizonte, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Recife, Salvador and Porto Alegre. The method applied was the singulate mean age, as reviewed by Wachter (2006). The main goal was to verify the changes during the 1980's, 1990's and 2000's years in the mean age. It was expected an increasing in the age at first job, as a result of the delaying in the insertion in the labor market among the youth. Moreover, it was intended to compare the mean age between males and females, especially because of the increasing in the women participation in the labor market, the mean age of the first job tends to diminish the differences between the genders.