The generation of formal employment in Mexico had a slowdown in its hiring rate in the third month of the year, reporting the minimum loss of 465 positions. The figures reported this month are impacted by the Easter period, which this year coincided with March and not April as in previous years.
According to ManpowerGroup monitoring, during the first quarter of the year, only 264,959 formal jobs were generated. This figure contrasts with the first quarters of 2023 and 2022 when 423,384 positions and 385,000 were created respectively, and is below the forecast of 350,000 formal jobs.
The first quarter of each year is where the greatest generation of job opportunities in Mexico is concentrated, and in which a large part of the jobs that were canceled in the month of December are recoveredHowever, this year it was not possible to recover the lost positions or boost the pace of hiring, the consulting firm indicated.
In December of last year, 384,882 workers lost their jobs. The IMSS indicated that this change in dynamics was mainly due to the seasonal effect of Holy Week, a time when productive stoppages or non-mandatory rest days are carried out.
The Easter effect, In the two previous years it had impacted the month of April 2023 and 2022which caused employment generation to slow down in said month.
According to the consulting firm’s monitoring, other Marches impacted by the Easter effect in the last decade were: March 2018 when 90,509 positions were registered; March 2026 with 59,412 jobs and March 2013 with 53,994 jobs, so March 2024 is the first to report zero job creation despite this seasonal effect.
According to the Employment Expectation Survey, In the country, only 45% of companies plan to expand their workforce starting in Apriland 18% plan to reduce it, so there is still a large demand for personnel that needs to be translated into more formal hiring.
The sectors that will have a greater demand for personnel in all their areas, starting in April, are Transportation, Logistics and Automotive with 43% intentions to hire; Life and Health Sciences with 35%; Energy with 35%; Manufacturing with 32%.
People seeking employment will be able to direct their search towards medium and large companies, since they are the type of economic unit that stand out in their intentions to increase their staff.
