A report on labour poverty by local think-tank México, ¿Cómo Vamos? published on 21 February, found that despite improvements recorded in the labour market by the end of 2022 the working situation for women in Mexico had worsened.
Based on figures from the national statistics institute (Inegi), the report points out that among positive developments are an increase in the labour participation rate to above levels seen prior to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. In the final quarter of 2022, 60.4% of the population was working, above the 59.9% recorded in the first quarter of 2020. Similarly, unemployment shrank during the last quarter of 2022, standing at 3% of the economically active population, down from 3.4% recorded in the previous quarter and from 3.7% recorded during the same period of 2021.
Importantly, the proportion of the population considered labour poor (people that cannot afford a set of basic foodstuffs despite having an income derived from employment) reached around 49.6m, equivalent to 38.5% of the population and a reduction of 1.6 percentage points from the previous quarter (albeit it remains above the pre-Covid-19 pandemic level of 36.6%).
However, labour poverty continues to affect a much higher proportion of women than men. The report highlights that 40.4% of women are considered labour poor, while 36.4% of men are in the same situation. In addition, women continue to be employed in the informal sector much more than men, which underscores the more precarious nature of their employment. Overall, 51% of workers in Mexico were employed informally in the last quarter of 2022, but for women this rate was 54.8%, while for men it was 48%. While this represented an increase of 0.5 percentage points for women relative to the previous quarter, the proportion of men informally employed fell by 0.8 percentage points in the same period.