Estudar, trabalhar ou alocar o tempo de outra maneira? Decisões dos jovens do sexo masculino no Brasil Metropolitano entre 2002 e 2015

This article aims to analyse the decisions of male youths between 15 and 24 years on allocating time either on studying, being in the labour market or through something else. Using data from the Monthly Employment Survey from IBGE for six metropolitan areas, Recife, Salvador, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo and Porto Alegre, the analysis comprehends the period between 2002 and 2016. The results have shown that unemployment rates and inactivity are more expressive for youths living in the metropolitan area of Salvador and Recife, meanwhile Porto Alegre has the smallest rates.The discrepancies are even more noticeable if youths’ educational levels are considered, mostly with groups between 8 and 10 years of study, in which inactivity rates in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro are amongst the highest.The use of the transition matrix have shown an upward trend of not allocating time for study and nor for being in the labour market, especially in the Northeast Metropolitan Areas. Furthermore, estimations using a multinomial logit model have been used for each metropolitan area considering four possibilities: studying and being in the labour market; not studying and being in the labour market; studying and not being the labour market; or not studying and not being in the labour market. In the recent period if the individual is not studying and nor is in the labour market, this is a sign of significant temporal dependency of how time was allocated in the last year, highlighting difficulties of mobility, especially for those who are not studying and nor in the labour market. Besides, young black men, in the status of being sons, with smaller levels of schooling presents higher probabilities of not studying and not being in the labour market. In recent years, macroeconomic factors also contribute for this behaviour.