Abstract

In the 90’s, the Brazilian society knew a very important process of economic and social changes. After a long period of the development centered in the internal market and local industrial base, a new economic policy was adopted aiming increase to the competitiveness of the industrial structure. The new economic dynamic induced the growth of the importation and reduced the importance of local productive base for internal market level. This dynamic has imposed systematic reductions of the formal employment level. The government argues that the employment problems are explained by the reduced level of the qualification of national workers. This paper shows that this dynamic is based in the unskilled labor force. It reinforced the low skill of the Brazilian labor market and doesn’t improve the competitiveness of national productive base. We don’t find indicators able to confirm the arguments of the actual economic policy.

JEL Classification: J12, J13, O25