Mexico’s IMSS-affiliated formal sector workforce added more than 138,000 people in October, reaching its largest size on record, according to the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS).
Over 22.6 million formal sector workers were registered with IMSS on Oct. 31, an increase of 138,139 compared to the end of September. In this case, a formal sector worker is one who works for an employer that pays into Mexico’s national social security system.
“It’s the highest figure since 1997, when [formal sector employment] began to be measured with the methodology that is currently used,” IMSS director Zoé Robledo told President Claudia Sheinbaum’s morning press conference on Monday.
He noted that the creation of just over 138,000 formal sector positions in October was the second best monthly result in 2024.
“During 2024, from January to October, 594,000 jobs were created,” Robledo added.
Over the past 12 months, the formal sector workforces in México state, Hidalgo, Chiapas and Oaxaca grew the most, according to IMSS, with annual increases of more than 4% in each of those states.
It is worth noting, however, that Mexico’s national statistics agency Inegi reported in December that 31.7 million people are classified as informal workers, meaning that their jobs are not IMSS affiliated and that they receive none of the benefits IMSS ensures, such as free healthcare, holiday pay, vacation time and access to a retirement pension.
However, Inegi also reported at the time that informal sector jobs were down 1.6% from December 2023.
Formal sector salaries up over 9%
IMSS reported that the average base salary for IMSS-affiliated workers was 580.5 pesos (about US $29) per day at the end of October. That average daily wage is 9.2% higher in nominal terms than a year earlier, IMSS said.
Robledo noted that the average daily salary at the end of 2018 – just after former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador took office – was 352 pesos.
He described the increase since then as “very significant” and noted that the average monthly salary for formal sector workers is now 17,414 pesos (US $860).
Robledo also highlighted that 86.6% of the 22.6 million formal sector jobs are permanent positions. Approximately 9 million of all formal sector jobs are held by women, he said.
Economy-wide job losses in September
The publication of the IMSS formal sector job data for October came three days after the national statistics agency INEGI released economy-wide employment data for September.
That data, derived from the National Employment Survey, takes into account job creation and losses in the private formal sector, the public formal sector and Mexico’s vast informal sector.
INEGI reported a net loss of 275,986 jobs in September, around two-thirds of which were informal sector positions.
The number of people employed in Mexico’s primary and secondary sectors fell in September, while jobs in the tertiary or services sector increased. The nationwide unemployment rate in September was 2.9%.
The job losses in September came after the total number of people in work in Mexico declined by almost 627,000 in August.
The job losses occurred as the Mexican economy slowed compared to 2023, with GDP expanding 1.7% annually in nonadjusted terms in the first nine months of the year. Mexico recorded annual growth of 3.2% in 2023.
With reports from El Universal and El Financiero
