This article is aimed at understanding the impact of complete higher education on the situation of individuals in the job market. For that, its reference was a crucial attribute in terms of qualification: belonging to the formal world. Based on RAIS data, it seeks to demonstrate how the combination of quality of legal labor situation and quality of the workforce plays a significant role on income in the job market. Furthermore, in order to verify the weight of local social-productive dynamics in the workings of the job market, the issues investigated were examined in three metropolitan areas: São Paulo, Porto Alegre, and Salvador.
Formal job market; RAIS; São Paulo metropolitan area; Porto Alegre metropolitan area; Salvador metropolitan area; higher education