5% of workers in the US are of Mexican origin: Cemla

Mexican workers in the United States are essential in various key industries for the economy of the neighboring country.

Last year, one in six employees in the agricultural sector was Mexican; in construction and mining, one in seven, and in the food, lodging and recreation sector, one in 13, indicates research by the Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (Cemla) with figures from the United States government. .

According to the organization, at the end of last year around 5 percent of workers in the United States were of Mexican origin, with or without documents.

Around 96 percent of the remittances that enter the country come from the Mexican population living in the United States, and there are states where these resources are equivalent to more than 10 percent of the economy, such as Chiapas, Guerrero or Michoacán, says Cemla. .

Yesterday began Donald Trump’s second term as president of the United States. In his first speech, he warned that one of his priorities will be his deportation program.

Various institutions in the financial sector (including BBVA and Bank of America) do not expect the Republican to follow through on his threat of mass expulsions.

According to Cemla research, during 2024 in the United States the number of immigrant workers of Mexican origin was 7 million 549 thousand 836.

They represented on average 4.7 percent of total employment, of 161 million 345 thousand 532 workers, but in some activities such as the agricultural sector and construction the proportions were 16.6 and 14.1 percent, respectively, while in food, lodging and recreation and in services in homes were 7.3 and 14 percentthe document specifies.

It points out that almost 80 percent of Mexican workers are concentrated in 12 states, that is, 6 million 18 thousand 838.

California employed 2 million 347 thousand 698 Mexican immigrants and Texas employed 1 million 489 thousand 526, which represented 31.1 and 19.7 percent of the total of said employment, so that one of every two Mexican immigrant workers in the United States works in California or in Texashe pointed out.

Another Cemla investigation argues that although remittances contributed 3.5 percentage points to Mexico’s GDP at the end of 2023 (the last full year for which data is available), there are entities whose dependence exceeds 10 percent and the majority of their population is low-income.

In 2023, Chiapas received the equivalent of 15.6 percent of its GDP in remittances, while in Guerrero it was 13.8 points, in Michoacán 10.9, in Zacatecas 10.6 and in Oaxaca 9.8 percent.

Entities with lower per capita product receive more remittances in relation to the size of their economy. This means that remittances contribute to moderating income differences between entities and that the states with the lowest per capita products have been the main expellers of migrants.he adds.