Informality does not give truce in Mexico

The Inegi reported that for the third month of this year the population employed in informal labor was 32.5 million people. During February, this population was 32.4 million, while in January, 31.9 million people were reported without formal employment.

While the informality rate decreased compared to February of this year. The labor informality rate in March was 54.3%, in February it was 54.5% and in the first month of the year it was reported at 54.1 percent.

Compared annually, labor informality in March 2024 was similar to March of last year, which reported 32.5 million people, although with a rate of 55 percent.

This year’s informality is higher than that of 2022, when the population employed in said sector was 31.6 million people with a rate of 55.8 percent.

Informality year after year maintains its historical behavior of capturing more than half of the employed population in the country. Although we observe that in percentage numbers improvements are perceived, in total numbers informal activity has more people or does not decline significantly, said Alberto Alesi, general director of ManpowerGroup.

According to ManpowerGroup’s monitoring of Inegi data, unemployment so far this year has shown favorable progress. At the beginning of 2024 the unemployed population was 1.7 million people, by February it dropped to 1.5 million people, and in March it reached 1.4 million people, a figure similar to March 2023.

For their part, paid workers during these first three months also showed positive progress, starting with 40 million 444 thousand in January, which rose to 41 million 112 thousand in February, and climbed a little in March when it reached 41 million 605 thousand.

Mexico needs to create between one million and one million 100 thousand new formal jobs annually to absorb the working-age population and prevent them from choosing to work informally.

People, unable to obtain formal employment, end up in the ranks of the informal sector due to the need to obtain economic income, but are deprived of social security and labor benefits.