Job creation in Mexico during the third quarter of 2024 was driven by the annual increase in jobs in the services and agricultural sectors, as well as the advance in formal employment. However, it was the weakest for a July-September period since 2014, revealed figures from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi).
After releasing the National Occupation and Employment Survey for the third quarter, Inegi estimated that the employed population in the country amounted to 59.53 million people in July-September 2024, an increase of 360,777 jobs compared to the same period of 2023.
The third quarter of this year showed the lowest job creation for a similar period since 2014. Although the streak of average creation of one million jobs in the last 10 years was interrupted in the third quarter of 2020, the generation in 2024 was the weaker in the reference period.
Employment advanced in the services sector with 271,698 more jobs than a year ago; The agricultural sector added 128,904 jobs in the third quarter, and 450,289 jobs were created in the formal market.
Stop, 3% of the PEA
In the July-September quarter, the country’s economically active population was 61.4 million people, 378 thousand more than in the third quarter of 2023.
A total of 59.5 million people were employed, both in the formal and informal sectors, 361 thousand more compared to the third quarter of 2023. This change was concentrated in restaurants and accommodation services, with an increase of 194 thousand people; in transportation, communications, mail and storage, with 148 thousand; in agriculture, livestock, forestry, hunting and fishing, with 129 thousand; in social services, with 124 thousand, and in construction, with 70 thousand people.
The population employed in large and medium-sized establishments grew by 269 thousand and 132 thousand people, respectively.
In the third quarter the unemployed population was 1.8 million people. The corresponding unemployment rate was 3 percent of the EAP, unchanged from the same period a year earlier. Compared to the previous quarter, it rose by 2.7 percent.