The unemployment rate has accumulated levels below 3% for 17 months; the decrease was accompanied by a recovery in employment levels and better working conditions.
The unemployment rate in Mexico fell from 2.5% to 2.3% in March, and thus reached its lowest level in history, according to the National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE). The decrease in unemployment was accompanied by an improvement in the creation of jobs and their quality.
At the end of the first quarter of the year, almost 100,000 people left the unemployed population, this allowed the rate to be reduced for the second consecutive month. So far this year, unemployment has decreased 0.6 percentage points.
The result “is very favorable,” highlights Juan Carlos Alderete, executive director of Economic and Market Analysis at Banorte. With the behavior of March, unemployment accumulates 17 months with a level of less than 3% when considering seasonally adjusted figures.
“The result is consistent with a positive seasonal pattern, reflecting the readjustment of the metric after the first two months of the year where it is usually higher,” says the specialist.
Although the general unemployment rate decreased, extended unemployment grew marginally by 0.1 percentage point and stood at 9.7%, due to the increase in those classified as 'available' in the Non-Economically Active Population (PNEA).
Along with the reduction in the unemployed population, employment levels showed positive signs in March. In the third month of the year, 414,335 people joined an occupation, the majority did so formally and with good employment conditions.
With 286,766 people joining a job in the formal sector, almost 70% of job creation was concentrated in the formal sector, the rest of the employment was generated in the informal sector.
As a result of these movements, the informality rate had a slight monthly decrease from 54.5% to 54.3% of the employed population; despite this, the level remains slightly above what was observed at the beginning of the year ( 54.1%).
