National employment should register this growth, but the reality is very different: last year 846,416 jobs were registered with Social Security; however, this figure and that of previous periods are not representative because they do not necessarily imply the creation of new positions.
“Social security is a totally different variable from employment, because these figures are about affiliation. It is like the membership of a club in which they tell us how many new members there are, but it is not employment because many of the new employees are in the informal sector and many of the new affiliates to social security are not new jobs either”, Luis considers in an interview. Foncerrada, Chief Economist of the American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico (AmCham).
The economist comments that in the country there are three groups of people who require employment: the unemployed who actively seek a job; those who do not have a job and are not looking for it, and the underemployed, that is, those who only work a few hours a week, but who could do it for longer.
On the side of the unemployed who are not looking for work, it is not necessarily that they do not want to work, they may have already looked for a job, but the conditions offered are very bad with low wages or no benefits.
Data from the National Survey of Graduates 2021 (ENE) indicate that 43% of university graduates in the country obtained a salary of between 3,000 and 8,000 pesos per month in their first job, amounts 3% lower than those registered in 2020. The 44.9 % of graduates said they had lacked benefits.
Alberto González, head of the Mexico and Costa Rica unit in the OECD Economics Department, comments in an interview that education, the fight against labor informality and investment are the three major internal challenges facing the country for the following years.
“We see that there are growing public spending needs: in public investment, in education, health and we believe that the way to respond to these needs is to increase tax revenues. And for Mexico we see that there is room to do it by expanding the tax bases. We do not believe that it is necessary to increase tax rates, but it is possible to collect more by reducing tax exemptions and reinforcing taxes such as property taxes and possession”, she assures.
growing gap
Despite the fact that there are about 17 million people without a job, according to Inegi data, there is also a factor that prevents their rapid incorporation into the labor market and it has to do with education.
The Mexican government has reduced the budget for public education and research in recent years, which has caused the suspension of programs and training that in turn cause a decrease in the creation of talent.
“We are not generating the technicians, nor are we giving the technical training that is required. The quality of the universities leaves a lot to be desired because resources have been reduced, so one of the big problems for employment and people’s quality of life is undoubtedly education,” Foncerrada points out.
In addition, the number of people who work in the country and who earn less than what the basic food basket costs (1,212 pesos per month), that is, who suffer from working poverty, went from 37.3% in February 2020 to 44.5% in September. , indicate figures from the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval).
possible solutions
Specialists consider that it is necessary for private initiative to also be more active, especially those that have some mark of social responsibility.
“The private sector has financed many universities. It is certainly not your responsibility; however, I believe that companies with social responsibility should be more participatory in education processes”, points out the AmCham specialist.
He adds that one of the problems is that the government has not invested enough and therefore the private initiative has not disbursed resources.
“If there is no public investment, it is very difficult for private investment to take place as well, because public investment means road communications, ports, airports, hospitals, schools and fiber optics, and that allows for increased productivity throughout the country,” he highlights.
In addition, private investment is also achieved with clear rules from the government and respect for agreements.
The AmCham economist clarifies that there are opportunities to reactivate the economy and generate more jobs.
“We can take advantage of some technology or capital, but not to continue exporting cheap labor but to export more technology and products with greater added value every day, that is where we must seek to have more talent and more investment in more sophisticated manufacturing,” it states.
“We would require 10 or 15 years to achieve sufficient levels; the problem is the quality of life of our people, that if we fall further behind in not having legal certainty, in not having investment, the poor will continue to increase and wages will continue to deteriorate”, he points out.
