Byron Ocampo says he feels frustrated, since after obtaining a higher education degree as a journalist and a master’s degree in digital strategic communication, he cannot find a job in his field and at 28 years of age he is unemployed.
He obtained a bachelor’s degree in social communication in 2018 at the University of Guayaquil, after reaching a place in public higher education in that career.
Initially, he wanted to study automotive engineering, since he has a bachelor’s degree in mechanics from a school in the Ventanas canton, in Los Ríos, but there was no vacancy available in the Costa region and he just started the policy in which the State intervened or influenced the selection of the career.
“What I wanted was only available in the universities of the Sierra region at that time. Since I didn’t want to lose my quota, I chose the options they gave me, in this case journalism. After graduating, I did work for a political party as a content creator, it’s the only job I’ve had related to the branch I studied at university”, he says.
Later, he was an information digitizer at the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC) and at the National Electoral Council, but they were temporary jobs.
In this context, he decides to study the master’s degree during the development of the pandemic, which culminated last December.
“I have even applied to be a teacher, since having a master’s degree qualifies me, but it turns out that they ask me for between six and eight years of work experience. As a young person, in my case I’m just going to be four years old after I got my third-level degree, I’m going to have that period of time of experience,” says Byron, who is no longer considered a nini population, a group that includes the who do not study or work and only those between 15 and 24 years of age.
He hasn’t studied since last August when he finished his master’s degree and since then he hasn’t found a job. “I even applied for a contest and work in the communication department of the Fundación Terminal Terrestre de Guayaquil, but they ask for a profile that is a bachelor, I don’t know why they don’t want to hire people who have higher education degrees,” he stresses.
For that single vacancy, 670 people compete, according to the number of interested parties that Byron observed on the state website of the Red Socio Empleo (encuentraempleo.trabajo.gob.ec).
“Having studied communication for five years (third level), plus almost two years of master’s degree to now be told that I can’t work because I don’t have at least six or eight years of experience, it’s frustrating. It’s time to look in other areas.”
With the help of his parents, Byron has a house of his own in Durán, in Guayas. He lives on the ground floor and rents the upper floor which is used for his basic expenses.
Javier Bravo, 30, is in the same condition. He graduated with a degree in gastronomy from the University of Guayaquil, but it has been three months since he has found a job.
His routine, like Byron’s, is to dedicate himself daily to looking for a job on the web pages where job offers are uploaded. He says that of the applications he makes online he has never been called.
“I have had an interview a week, sometimes none, but in the end nothing comes out. I have looked for kitchen administration, for food and beverage outlets, head of operations and food production, in industrial gastronomy, ”says Javier, positions in line with his university career.
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“When they look for a chef and they see that I have the title, they think they are not going to be able to pay me what it should be, perhaps. They prefer empiricists or foreigners because they are paid less”, she assures.
There are weeks when she works up to two days at a friend’s restaurant. “I help her and she gives me the day or I make some special dish, ten or fifteen dollars for four hours.”
It’s the second period he’s been unemployed since graduating from college. His situation is attributed to the ravages of the COVID-19 pandemic, since he was removed from his last job as a result of the regrowth of the omicron variant.
María Cristina Crespo, coordinator of Psychology at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ), indicates that the population over 24 years of age who finished their higher education and cannot find a job falls into a different logic, since at a conceptual level the nini are the who are between 15 and 24 years old and do not study or work.
“It’s not the same kind of problem. Those of us who had a job and left because of the pandemic or whatever, have a certain advantage over the nini because these people have had previous experience that allows them to have contacts, referrals that help them get another job, ”he indicates.
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However, the problem of youth unemployment is serious in Ecuador. The unemployment rate by age group is higher among those between 18 and 29 years old. This reached 10.3% during 2021, according to the latest annual figure from INEC.
Unemployment has increased with the pandemic, since in 2018 and 2019 it was 8.6% and 9.3% in the group of 18 to 29 years old, in that order.
Almost half of the people who are between 18 and 29 years old with a job (45.5% of them) work in the informal sector of the economy, according to the official figures body. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
