Trabalho, Educação e Saúde - TES (Work, Education and Health) is an open access scientific journal, edited by the Joaquim Venâncio Polytechnic School of Health, from Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.
Precarization is situated within the context of transformations in the world of work that have unfolded over the past forty years, driven by the process of productive restructuring supported by the neoliberal political and economic project. In this scenario of intensified attacks on the working class and social policies, the first undergraduate programs in collective health emerged in 2008. This study analyzed the professional integration of graduates from these programs, who completed their degrees between 2016 and 2021 at public universities in Pernambuco (Brazil), considering the phenomena of labor precarization and the regulation of the profession. This is a descriptive study with a qualitative approach, carried out on 85 questionnaires sent to all graduates and eight semi-structured interviews with alumni, program coordinators, and a representative from the State Council of Municipal Health Secretariats. Insecure jobs, lacking social protection and offering low wages, are realities faced by some graduates in collective health. Law N. 14.725/2023, which regulates the profession of the sanitarista (public health professional), was enacted 11 years after the first professionals were trained, although it does not resolve the issue of precarious employment. The strategies for developing this new profession failed to consider the preexisting impacts on professional labor markets, which are consequences of the neoliberal agenda.
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https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8244-6601