Understanding what drives the attachment of young workers to formal jobs seems to be a promising path to reduce both youth turnover and unemployment rates. In this study we tackle the issue of turnover and labor market attachment of young workers from two perspectives.

We use matched employer-employee data to study the situation of young workers in the (formal) labor market in Brazil. We employ the flow approach to draw a comparative picture of the patterns of the young and adult movements in the labor market during a period of fifteen years. We also estimate an econometric model that attempts to isolate the contribution of workers’ age on employment duration. Our results show that youths experience very high rates of labor market turnover, a phenomenon that comes from elevated rates of hiring and separation from jobs. The estimates from the model show that the age of workers does contribute to decrease employment duration, with or without the inclusion of firm-specific fixed effects. In terms of policy, a decline in the separation rate may be attained through a combination of policies that involves the education system and labor market initiatives that create incentives for workers and firms to invest in each other.

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