Mexico City. In Mexico, 912,014 jobs were lost in December 2022, of which three out of four corresponded to the informal economy, reported the National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE)which makes the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).
The labor market in Mexico, both in the formal and informal economy, paused in its monthly recovery in employment levels in December, which caused the worst job loss since January 2022.
After two months of growth, the ENOE estimated that the economically active population (PEA) decreased by 989 thousand 911 people, with 912 thousand 14 jobs lost compared to last November, of which 655 thousand 772 correspond to the informal economy and 256 thousand 242 to the formal; while 77 thousand 897 fewer unemployed people.
Employment among men was affected with the monthly loss of 636,176, while women lost 275,838 jobs.
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Most affected sectors
The tertiary sector (services and commerce) was the one that lost the most jobs in the last month of the year, with 689,705 jobsmainly in commerce (465 thousand), social services (304 thousand) and professional and financial services (248 thousand), mainly.
In the restaurant and accommodation services activities, they employed 179 thousand 645 people.
While construction reported growth of 214 thousand 549 jobs.
Slight drop in informality
In December 2022, the population employed in the labor informality was 31.8 million people and the labor informality rate (TIL) it was 54.9 percent of the employed population, 1.6 percentage points less than in the last month of 2021. For the aggregate of 32 cities, the TIL stood at 43.8 percent during the reference month.
The population employed in the labor informality considers, without duplicating, those who are laborally vulnerable due to the nature of the economic unit for which they work, as well as people whose employment relationship or dependency does not recognize their source of work.
Thus, in addition to the population that works in unregistered micro-businesses or the informal sector, other similar modalities are included, such as the self-employed in subsistence agriculture, as well as those who work without social security.
Of this informal population, 18.6 million are men and 13.3 million are employed by women.
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While 26.1 million people are in the formal economy, 15.7 million are jobs held by men and 10.4 million by women.
Of the EAP, 57.9 million people (97.2 percent) were employed during December last year. During the year, 1.01 million jobs were created.
Within it, there were 4.2 million people under-employed -those who stated that they needed and were available to work more hours- (7.3 percent of the employed population) in the last month of the year. This is a reduction of 1.5 million people from December 2021.
At the end of December, the unemployed population was 1.6 million people and the unemployment rate (TD) was 2.8 percent of the EAP.
Compared to the last month of 2021, the unemployed population decreased by 427 thousand people and the TD was lower by 0.8 percentage points.
In December 2022, at a monthly rate and with seasonally adjusted figures, the TD registered no variation and was located at 3.0 percent. The underemployment rate fell 0.1 points: it stood at 7.5 percent in the same period.
With information from La Jornada
