Mobilidade nas escolhas de profissões no mercado de trabalho brasileiro

Abstract

The changes in consumption patterns and habits of the population as a result of the stability of the Brazilan economy post 1994 has provoked debate about whether or not a new middle class in Brazil has arisen. Besides, the findings in the literature of a recent reduction in income inequality in the country have direct implications on changes that have occurred in the distribution of occupations in the labor market. Based on these discussions and evidences, this paper analyzes the Brazilian labor market in 1995, 2003 and 2009 from two approaches: first, by reducing the existing eight hundreds occupational categories into seven, following the principle of the theoretical scheme of classes of Erickson, Goldthorpe and Portocarrero (1979) and Goldthorpe, Llewellyn and Payne (1987); second, the application of a multinomial discrete choice model allows identifying the determinants of workers participation in a particular category and, through estimation of mincerian earning equations, with correction for sample selection, it is inferred about the factors that affect workers’ earnings. The results point for an expansion of income and educational level in almost all categories, as well as evidencing that years of schooling, experience, family status, gender, race and region have a significant influence on occupational choice and workers’ earnings. Yet, there are also significant differences from the returns to education as different occupational strata are compared. Moreover, this return has shown to be decreasing over time in some categories, especially for those in higher earnings strata.