Does formal employment equal quality employment in Chile?

Thirty years ago, the Chilean economy embarked on a process of deregulation in various areas: financial, pensions, education, labor, etc. In 1990, after the return of democratic government, Chile continued on the path of neoliberal economic policies and the liberal conception of labor collective rights (imposed by the Pinochet dictatorship). In 2011, labor informality according the Hussmanns metrics reached 37.5%, the lowest since 1992 and the lowest among the countries of Latin America. Taking into account both facts (moderate informality and labor deregulation), this research explore the following question: Does formal employment equal quality employment?. Working with the Socioeconomic Characterization Survey of Chile (CASEN) and analyzing the changes in labor institutions, this paper concludes that it is not possible to strongly assert that improvements in formalization, means quality employment. In particular, given the unregulated nature of the labor market, Chile faces a situation of "Precarious Formality"