La Jornada: In the informal economy, the generation of jobs

In the first quarter of 2026, the “job insecurity” of the employed population in Mexico increased compared to the same period last year, due to the increase in informal employment, a greater number of positions without access to health institutions and whose personnel were employed, mainly, in microbusinesses without establishments and in medium-sized establishments, data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) revealed.

When presenting the National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE) for the first quarter, Inegi specified that the rate of critical employment conditions – which measures the percentage of the employed population that works in precarious work conditions, such as involuntary reduced hours, income below the minimum threshold or excessive hours with low remuneration – rose from 37.6 percent in January-March 2025 to 38.8 percent in the same period of 2025. 2026.

The employed population in the country increased by 551,651 people on an annual basis in the first quarter of the year, the lowest creation since 2011, but it was entirely informal, with 583,153 positions, which completely absorbed the loss in formal employment of 31,502 people, compared to the first quarter of 2025.

As a result of this, the informality rate stood at 54.78 percent, with 32.63 million people, being the highest level for a first quarter since 2023. During the January-March period of this year, self-employed workers increased by 494,370, while salaried people decreased by 330,312.

The ENOE data detailed that in the non-agricultural field, one million 105 thousand 483 jobs were created. The most significant increase was recorded in microbusinesses, with 559 thousand people in one year. Without establishment, microbusinesses employed 531,632 people; with establishment, 27,384. Meanwhile, the employed population in medium-sized establishments increased by 463,794 positions.

About 27.9 million people earn a minimum wage or less, that is, 45.7 percent of the employed population, which represented an annual increase of 4.3 million. Meanwhile, 35.9 million people do not have access to health services (six out of every 10 of the employed population), that is, 800,733 more compared to the first quarter of last year.

Meanwhile, until the end of the first quarter, the ENOE identified 1.8 million employed people who do not receive a salary and 12.3 million who do not have benefits.

The Inegi specified that the employed population, both formal and informal, amounted to 59.5 million people in the first quarter, which represented a quarterly loss of 233,194 jobs.

In the January-March quarter of 2026, the unemployed population totaled 1.6 million, an amount that represented an unemployment rate of 2.6 percent of the economically active population, a percentage higher than that of the same quarter of 2025.