Mexico’s workforce is the ninth best among those of more than 60 countries, according to an analysis carried out by a multinational staffing and recruitment company.
ManpowerGroup’s Total Workforce Index (TWI) scores the workforces of countries on over 200 unique factors grouped under the categories of availability, cost efficiency, regulation and productivity.
“The markets that rank highest … are those with the highest relative performance across all four categories,” ManpowerGroup said.
“Markets that perform well have successfully responded to trends, such as remote workforce readiness, building technology infrastructure and closing skills gaps. They have demonstrated market and geopolitical stability, have relatively high gender participation and are skilling emerging workforces to meet changing demographic realities. High-ranking markets also exhibit favorable regulatory environments,” it said.
Mexico’s performance across the four categories allowed it to rise 44 places from 53rd on the 2021 TWI to ninth on the 2022 edition.
It achieved its best score in the cost efficiency category (0.77 out of 1) and also did well in the areas of regulation (0.72) and productivity (0.7). At 0.31, Mexico’s workforce availability score was significantly lower, but ManpowerGroup noted that its standing in that category had improved.
“Mexico is unique because laws that prohibit outsourcing of contingent workers and most types of subcontractors have led companies to pull out of that market. The result is significantly improved access to full-time permanent labor,” the company said in its report.
“… Mexico stands out in terms of being able to support permanent recruitment — whether remote or on-site — for companies looking for opportunities to offshore or nearshore to lower-cost markets.”
María Castro Nevares, a ManpowerGroup executive, said that “the law prohibiting outsourcing of labor in Mexico may have discouraged foreign investment among companies looking to engage contingent labor,” but “any company looking for a large, young skilled workforce can find an abundant permanent workforce at a lower cost than many other markets can offer.”
“This has created a fluid dynamic as American companies look to nearshore and benefit from alignment of time zones and affinity for culture,” she added.
Economy Minister Raquel Buenrostro said in November that “more than 400 North American companies have the intention to carry out a relocation process from Asia to Mexico.”
Benefits associated with the North American free trade pact, the USMCA — including ones encompassed by the four TWI categories — are a driving force behind the nearshoring trend.
The workforces of Mexico’s two North American trade partners fared even better on the 2022 Total Workforce Index, with that of the United States ranking No. 1 and that of Canada ranking third.
The workforces of Singapore, Ireland, Australia, the United Kingdom, Israel, Philippines and Malaysia also made the top ten.
Mexico News Daily
