Access to higher education in Mexico, precariousness and gender inequality in the youth labour market

Abstract

This article analyses the evolution of access to higher education among Mexican youth and its implications for their labour market conditions between 1998 and 2023. Using a quantitative methodology based on data from the Encuesta Nacional de Empleo (ENE) and the Encuesta Nacional de Ocupación y Empleo (ENOE), the study identifies a sustained increase in educational attainment among young people, particularly among women, whose participation in higher education now exceeds that of men. However, this educational achievement has not translated into a substantive improvement in labour conditions. Youth employment remains highly precarious, characterised by low wages, contractual instability, long working hours, and unemployment, with particular emphasis on gender discrimination. Drawing on credentialism and employability theories, the analysis shows how educational expansion has failed to guarantee decent employment and how structures of inequality operate at the intersection of education, gender, and work. Despite advances in educational coverage, the article concludes that higher education alone is insufficient to reverse precariousness and structural inequalities in the Mexican labour market.