According to Inegi, 134,609 jobs were created in the country in November, all of them informal and in the self-employment sector.
In November, 134,609 jobs were created in the country, all of them informal and in the self-employment sector, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) reported on Friday.
With this, the informal employment rate rose to 54.6% of the employed population, the highest figure since December 2023, and which represents an increase of 0.5 points compared to the October figure.
According to the National Survey of Occupation and Employment (ENOE), 32.8 million people work in one of the informal sectors in the country, that is, they are "laborally vulnerable" because they participate in informal businesses, subsistence agriculture or without social security in the formal sector.
According to the organization Mexico, How Are We Doing?, “the high and persistent levels of informal employment in our country are one of the main structural flaws of the Mexican economy. Historically, people with informal employment have been the majority of the working population. This has meant that more than half of working people do not have social security or legal and institutional protection corresponding to their work. In addition, they face a constant stigma that is actually based on prejudices and inaccuracies.”
Unemployment advances marginally
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate rose marginally in November, from 2.5% to 2.6% in its monthly comparison. Meanwhile, extended unemployment, which also includes inactive people available for work, decreased from 10.9% to 10.6%.
In the balance of employment in the eleventh month of the year, job creation was concentrated in the secondary sector, mainly in construction (206,000 new jobs). Both agricultural and service activities had a negative balance.
Another category with significant changes in November was underemployment, that is, people who, for market reasons, work reduced hours but need to work longer hours. This rate fell by 0.5 percentage points, from 9.4% to 8.9% compared to October.
“A positive figure from the November ENOE is that the underemployment rate decreased from 9.28% to 8.57%, according to seasonally adjusted figures. This rate had remained at levels below 8% since May 2023, but suffered a sharp increase in October 2024 that placed it at 9.28%,” said Gabriela Siller, Director of Economic-Financial Analysis at Banco Base.
