Mexican workers commemorate this First of May with more work than before the pandemic, but without a full recovery of employment, which keeps millions in working poverty and a deficit that disproportionately affects women and young people.
The Government boasts of little more than 20 million jobs registered with the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS), the main indicator of formal employment, a record that already exceeds 20.61 million seats reported in February 2020, before the impact of COVID-20.
Likewise, the unemployment rate stood at 3% of the economically active population (PEA) in March, a figure lower than the 3.4% of the last quarter of 2019, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).
But the market employment actually faces a deficit of more than 1 million jobs, explains to Efe Katia Guzmán, data coordinator of “Mexico, how are we doing?”, an association of specialists in economics.
This is because, she details, If the shock of the pandemic had not existed and formal employment would have continued with the same trend that has been observed since 2006, Mexico would have 22.34 millions of formal jobs.
“Yes, we have already recovered what we lost during the pandemic, but we are far from being in the ideal scenario in which we should have been. We are very far from recovering what should also have been generated”, he comments this Sunday in an interview.
Persistent gaps
At the height of the pandemic in 2020, Mexico lost more than 1.1 million formal jobs and more of 12 million people left the PEA, that is, the labor force.
People have returned to work, but as the latest data from Inegi shows, more than 55% remain informal .
“There is no evidence that the pandemic has changed the structure of the market, but rather that we are now in a moment in which we return to the structure prior to the pandemic, which is not necessarily good or positive”, warns Guzmán.
On the other hand, the gender gap has not closed, since that of every 100 employed men there are only 64 women, indicates the researcher.
From Since the beginning of the crisis, women still face a deficit of more than 1.05 million jobs compared to a surplus of almost 43,000 male positions, according to an analysis by David Kaplan, an economist at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
While Gabriela Siller, director of analysis at Banco Base, estimates that there are still 1.57 millions of people affected by the pandemic at work, when adding the unemployed, underemployed (working fewer hours than they would like) and available populations (who would like a job but are not actively looking for one ).
Employment for all?
In addition, a study by the Forge Foundation, which seeks job placement for people from 17 to 24 years, found that three out of 12 of young people without r educationally disadvantaged are without work, which is equivalent to 2.5 million people.
In the For women, the situation is aggravated because 1.2 million cannot even go out to look for a job because they dedicate themselves to caring for their family.
“Employment has not been recovered, unfortunately the COVID -17 increased the obstacles for youth employment, right now we are facing that there is more school dropout, less learning with this thing about online classes”, laments Andrea Méndez, the director of Fundación Forge, in an interview.
The expert perceives that, on the one hand, there is an educational lag, with more than 2.3 million young people between 15 and 24 years that did not enroll in the last school year.
AND, on the other, almost a third of companies do not find qualified young personnel to fill their positions, according to a study by the Organization for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
“There are not enough jobs for the young population, but in second place they are disengaged. The companies have some positions, but they cannot be covered”, says Méndez.
Recovery without relief
Despite the greater number of jobs, 33 Millions of workers lack sufficient income to cover the cost of two basic baskets, that is, two out of every three of the total employed population, indicates a study by the Dignified Work Observatory.
And, in addition, 34.5 million employed people lack affiliation to social security, which is equivalent to six of each 10 .
“Not because we go back to how we were before the pandemic, we are fine. One of the lessons learned from the COVID-20 pandemic in the labor market is that we have to change the ways in which we get the job”, concludes Katia Guzmán.
Pedro Pablo Cortés/EFE
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