Crisis Among Youth: Over 4 Million Live in Vulnerable Conditions, Struggling to Make Ends Meet and Suffering from Depression

Youth in Argentina are facing a critical scenario. Almost half of young people aged 18 to 29 live in conditions of structural precariousness. This represents a universe of 4,145,458 individuals, among whom one-third neither works nor studies, nor seeks employment, reflecting a lack of expectations that translates into a lack of projects such as starting a family or leaving their current environment. The impact on mental health due to the deterioration of living conditions is significant.

The recent report "Vulnerable Youth in Argentina: Living Conditions, Beliefs, and Expectations for the Future", prepared by a research team from the Common Basic Cycle (CBC) of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), warns that vulnerability is no longer a marginal phenomenon, but currently affects 48.9% of young people.
Courtesy of UBA

33.5% present high vulnerability, 55.3% medium vulnerability, and 11.2% low vulnerability, with the majority being male (58.1%). Additionally, two out of three (60.2%) are aged between 18 and 24, and almost half (46.2%) live in households with five or more members, with a low percentage (2.9%) of single-parent households.

Of the 1,002 young people surveyed who meet some condition of vulnerability, 27% live in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires (AMBA), while 73% are distributed throughout the rest of the country. This is a group where almost two out of three (60.5%) have not completed secondary education, and only 6.7% manage to access tertiary or even university studies.

Education

The study, developed within the framework of the Research and Development Project in Strategic Areas (PIDAE-UBA), reveals alarming data about the disconnection of young people from basic social integration institutions: school and the world of work. "Only a quarter of vulnerable youth continue studying, which shows an early disconnection from the formal educational system," the report states. In this context, women show higher levels of educational continuity than men (28.2% vs 22.3%).

Courtesy of UBA

Educational level appears as the main factor of stratification. According to the researchers, a higher level of education allows for a "drastic" reduction in high vulnerability. Furthermore, it expands "the relative opportunities for formal labor insertion, health coverage, and social mobility projection."

In contrast, lower educational levels concentrate the highest groups of informality, underemployment, overcrowding, and also "reflect greater difficulties in maintaining sufficient income."

Work

One of the most concerning points of the report is the consolidation of the segment known as "NEET" (Not in Education, Employment, or Training). Two out of ten vulnerable young people in Argentina neither work nor study. However, the research found an even more serious component within this group: one-third of those who are unemployed have stopped looking for work. "This 'disconnection' reflects a break in expectations for progress, where the labor market is no longer perceived as an accessible space for inclusion," explained Juan Cruz Esquivel, director of the research at UBA.

Courtesy of UBA

The study also reveals that nearly seven out of ten vulnerable youth (69.4%) are working, although there remains a significant margin of labor inactivity (30.6%). "In other words, participation in the labor market is combined with situations of inactivity and unemployment, reflecting unstable labor trajectories," they indicate. There, the unemployment rate for women doubles that of men (41% vs 23.2%), a figure that reflects gender labor inequality.

Among the youth who report not having a job (30.6%), only four out of ten are recently seeking employment, highlighting deeply rooted discouragement processes and the magnitude of the youth social crisis in Argentina. Nevertheless, those who manage to enter the labor market do not access the best conditions: jobs are often low-skilled and highly informal, mainly in sectors such as commerce, construction, and caregiving.

More than half of those with medium and high Social Vulnerability Levels (SVL) have unregistered jobs. "If we add those who work independently, the percentages are around 90%. In other words, only 7.2% of youth with medium SVL and 0.5% of youth with high SVL have a registered job," they emphasize.

For Felipe Vega Terra, Director of the Common Basic Cycle at the University of Buenos Aires and co-director of the research for this work, beyond the formality or informality of the labor in which the majority of vulnerable youth are confined, "the material reality shows that for 57%, household income is not enough to make ends meet." The percentage rises to 70% among those in high SVL.

Mental Health

This transforms into a vicious circle that is increasingly difficult to escape from and to which problems are added: 78% of this segment lacks social security or private health insurance and depend exclusively on the public health system for any type of medical care, a service that is increasingly strained by falling public investment and the influx of people who, due to job loss, have lost coverage and must seek care in public hospitals.
Courtesy of UBA

The lack of necessary income to survive is compounded by psychological distress, an experience that the report already qualifies as "everyday." It occurs that more than 70% of the youth surveyed by UBA reported having "frequent problems with nerves or anxiety." Additionally, 50% admitted to suffering from lethargy or "symptoms compatible with depression." Furthermore, 30% acknowledged having difficulties controlling their consumption of alcohol, tobacco, or substances.

"The signs of psychological distress are not exceptional experiences," the authors of the report state, but rather "are part of everyday life." Thus, "the multidimensionality of vulnerability is reinforced, involving both material and subjective dimensions." The report indicates that those in medium and high SVL (with a greater concentration in the latter) exhibit more mental health problems (anxiety, nerves, lethargy, depression).

Structural vulnerability, combined with salary issues and the impact on mental health, presents barriers that cause millions of young Argentines to live their daily lives in a hostile environment that offers no quick prospects for escaping these conditions. However, the study highlights that, despite everything, education is still considered by 85.7% as a tool that would allow them to improve their quality of life.

Milei and the Evangelical Church Predominate Among Vulnerable Youth

The study also analyzes the consumption of information, political inclination, and religious affiliation of the respondents. It reveals that 71.2% learn about current issues in the country through social media (with Instagram and Facebook leading), pushing traditional media to a secondary role. Only 18% get their information through TV.

Furthermore, religious identification is becoming increasingly diverse. Catholicism (30.8%) is no longer predominant; instead, among vulnerable youth, Evangelical churches dominate as the first minority (37.6%), although there is a continuous growth of those with no religious affiliation (29.5%). In the AMBA, those without religious affiliation lead the ranking (38.3%), followed by Evangelicals (33.1%) and Catholics (23.9%).

Courtesy of UBA

Regarding voting, La Libertad Avanza has a significant advantage over Peronism. 38% of respondents said they leaned towards Javier Milei in the 2023 presidential election, while 25% voted for Sergio Massa. Another 25% said they did not participate in the vote.

"The electoral support for Javier Milei was more pronounced among those with higher educational levels, while those with lower formal education showed higher levels of abstention and support for Sergio Massa," they report.

Future Projections

Among the main objectives for the next five years for young people living in vulnerable conditions is "to get a job or access a better one than they already have" (31.9%) and the dream of a "own house" (29.8%). Starting a family is seen as a relegated option (4.8%), a situation reflected in the fact that more than half (56.3%) do not have children.

The report indicates that nearly seven out of ten vulnerable youth project to reside elsewhere within five years, mainly in a better neighborhood in the city or, to a lesser extent, in another city or country. This projection of the future within the same city indicates a preference for residential improvement over territorial mobility.

Women express greater expectations for residential improvement (44.2% vs 38.9%), while men tend to project themselves with greater permanence in the same neighborhood or city (33.6% vs 28.4%). Additionally, men prioritize job improvement and entrepreneurship, while women place greater emphasis on education and access to their own housing.

Among the main barriers that hinder access to such objectives, the report primarily identifies structural factors such as money and opportunities rather than individual or family dimensions. This, they warn, would express "a social reading rather than a personal one as a limitation of the projected goals." "Nonetheless, the perception of unequal opportunities coexists with representations that attribute success or failure to personal effort," the researchers add.

In conclusion, the CBC report from UBA indicates that social vulnerability "operates as a structuring axis of material and subjective inequalities." They also warn that given the complexity of the situation affecting more than 4 million young people, "coordinated and comprehensive interventions" are required.