Government Programs for the Insertion of Youth and Women in Chile's Labor Market: A Discussion

In Chile, labor-based inclusion policies and training programs have been targeted at social groups seen as especially vulnerable. Using results from the 1990 CASEN household survey, the democratic governments identified youths and women heads of households as target groups in need of training. This led to the creation of two training programs: one for women (Capacitacion para Mujeres Jefes de Hogar), and one for youths (Chile J6ven). Do young workers and women need these special training programs? If yes, do programs such as PMJH and Chile Joven, as they stand, succeed in promoting the labor market insertion of their beneficiaries and in addressing the obstacles faced by low-income youth and female heads of households in finding and keeping good jobs? Are there other segments of the population which also require special attention from policy makers? Although this paper cannot address all these questions in a comprehensive manner, it does provide an introductory discussion of the issues.