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20 years

More than half of Costa Rica’s workforce hasn’t completed high school

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April 20th, 2015 (InsideCostaRica.com) A story published by the Spanish-language financial newspaper El Financiero on Sunday as part of a series analyzing income inequality in the country pointed out what some may find to be a surprising fact:  56% of the country’s workforce has not completed high school.

 

The data, based on the National Survey of Income and Expenditure 2013 produced by the National Institute of Statistics and Census (INEC), also reveals that 71% of workers have never attended college or university-level courses.

 

EF’s analysis shows that education, or lack thereof, is increasingly correlated to workers’ earning potential.

 

According to EF’s estimates, a worker who has completed high school will earn, on average, 23% more than a worker who has not for doing the same job.

 

And if the worker possesses a bachelor’s degree, he can expect to earn more than twice as much for the same job than a worker only possessing a high school diploma.

 

One million of Costa Rica’s 1.5 million workers, or 67%, earn less than ¢450,000 per month (~$855 USD).

 

Editor’s note: This story was corrected on April 20th, 5:29 p.m.  The original article stated in the second paragraph that 71% of workers do not possess college degrees; where in fact it should have been stated that 71% of workers have never received or attended college or university-level studies.  We regret the error, and appreciate reader Ken Morris for catching the mistake.

The error will be noted on our corrections page shortly.   

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  • disgusted

    A few things come to mind. One is the shear cost of sending one child to school, Uniforms,Books, insurance, and curriculum cost all pile on the parent for the FREE education. A 15 y/o cost his mother nearly $500 just the first month. I said insurance yes extra for each student to pay even though they have Caja thought the parent. 8 courses with books costing some 15,000 average and so on.. Most parents have more than one child and if they even make $700 a month you do the math.

    Secondly, I wonder the quality.. The teachers are always asking for more money striking with pay. Sometime and many classes are commonly canceled. I see that the learning and all sad.. I had the student do a simple math problem and divide without a computer.. He could not do this without his calculator then even then took several attempts.

    Grads for high school or even college are working in fast food or some other menial job making minimal wages.. Only hope some have connections in government and hold on to those jobs.

    I am not surprise if the stats are padded and really higher percentage than 67%.. Sad! That is why private schools are in business here.

  • Ken Morris

    First, a possible factual correction. I don’t believe the article says that 71% of the workers lack college degrees; rather I believe it says that 71% lack college studies. Presumably, of the 44% of the employees with high school diplomas, most (29% of the total) go on to some college studies, but I would be very surprised that percentage graduated from college. It would be an odd educational distribution that found 29% with college degrees, 56% without high school diplomas, and only 15% somewhere between a high school diploma and a college degree.

    Second, let’s remember that these data refer to workers as opposed to the population as a whole. Workers are older, and in particular include many who grew up during the “lost decade” of the 1980s when macroeconomic crises prevented many young Ticos from finishing high school. Although not a lot better, the rates of high school graduation and the like are higher today than they were, yet the workforce still includes many from this earlier cohort.

    Third, let’s also remember that Costa Rica’s workforce includes many immigrants, mainly from Nicaragua, who as a rule didn’t have the same educational opportunities that Ticos have. It is not true that all Nicas lack a high school diploma or even a college degree, but the pattern is for them to have fewer years of schooling than Ticos, and this tendency pulls the overall numbers down.

    Last, while it’s fair to cull the educational attainment data from the article, to my mind the main and important point of the article is how low the average earnings are in the country.

    People are always overlooking this fact when opining about social policy. To take an important example, it’s common to hear complaints about “deadbeat dads” failing to pay child support. Well, I agree, fathers should pay child support, but honestly, how is a fellow earning less than $855 a month going to be able to pay much in child support? Until we rub our noses in the real earnings numbers, we don’t understand the magnitude of problems like this one.

    • http://insidecostarica.com/ Timothy Williams

      Ken, good catch on the fact-check: you are correct, the source article states that 71% have not studied at the college/university level; not that 71% lack college degrees (I’m sure that number is quite higher, given that more than half lack a high school diploma). Correction coming shortly.

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