The behavior of formal employment last year was not as favorable as expected. Of the 32 entities in the country, Guerrero, Tabasco and Durango reported a loss of 4.9 thousand jobs, according to the number of positions assigned to the IMSS.
Guerrero registered the largest contraction in its workforce, with an annual drop of 1.7% due in part to the impact of Hurricane Otis.
It is followed by Tabasco, with a contraction of 0.8% in the year, due to the completion of the Dos Bocas refinery that weakened the labor market, particularly in the construction sector, said Héctor Magaña, coordinator of the Center for Research in Economics and Business (Cien) of the Tecnológico de Monterrey.
Additionally, in Guerrero and Tabasco the informality rates are relatively high (around 60%), which also complicates that people are employed in the formal sector, he added.
In Durango the annual decrease in formal jobs was 0.1%, resulting from the problems of insecurity, but also from the lower production in the extractive industries, since the entity has an important participation in the country’s mining, explained Magaña.
In general terms, during the past year 651 thousand 490 jobs were generated in the formal sector of the economy, a figure lower than the 730 thousand estimated and 13.5% lower than the 753 thousand reached in 2022.
Among the factors that influenced this result, the loss of 384 thousand 882 places in December stands out, the worst drop of that month since 1997, when the IMSS records begin. This is related to the irregular practice carried out by many employers of firing part of their staff in December to rehire them at the beginning of the following year, reducing the cost of their payroll at the expense of the rights of workers, explained Héctor Magaña.
Another factor is that part of the employment of the transformation industry, in particular manufacturing, has tended to slow down in the last three months of the year, concentrating the greatest dynamism in construction and commerce.
Among the entities that reported the highest growth in their workforce, the cases of Quintana Roo and Yucatán stand out, with annual increases of 7.9% and 5.2%, respectively.
Employment in both states was benefited by the speed with which the works of the Maya Train are being carried out to finish them in the estimated time.
Additionally, in the case of Quintana Roo, it was also favored by the construction of the airport, added Magaña.
On the other hand, in Nayarit the formal workforce increased 5.3% in December of last year, compared to the same period of 2022, due to the construction of tourist infrastructure and the capture of part of the traditional visitors of Acapulco.
Source: El Universal
