The Determinants of Unemployment Duration in Sao Paulo (Os Determinantes Da Duracao Dodesemprego EM Sao Paulo)

This paper examines the determinants of unemployment duration in the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo in 1997. Descriptive statistics show that around 52% of the unemployed lived with their parents, that their average age was 27 and that 80% of them had between four and eleven years of schooling. Moreover, 85% of the 1997 unemployed quit looking for work in the three months, following the survey, but only half of them found a new job. The econometric results show that unemployment duration is lower for family heads and for persons who have worked before, and higher for the more educated, for persons who were laid off from their previous work, for the elderly and for those with longer tenure in the previous work. Finally, the hazard rate increases with the duration of unemployment up to the sixth month, declining afterwards