More than 400 thousand formal jobs were lost in December

In December, 405,259 formal jobs were lost in the country. It is the highest figure for a twelfth month of the year in a decade, according to the monthly report of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) on employment behavior.

This is a phenomenon that is repeated every year and has already been pointed out by the authorities due to the impact it causes on people who stop receiving an income, as well as social and economic benefits.

Of the people who lost their jobs in December, almost 257 thousand held permanent positions and more than 148 thousand held temporary positions. With these numbers, the registration of affiliates to the institute stood at 22 million 238 thousand 379 as of December 31.

In the annual measurement, 2024 also stands out for the lowest number of jobs created, with 213,993, while in 2023 the indicator was 651,490. The greatest contrast is observed compared to 2021, the year in which there were 846,416 new jobs formal.

In the statistics, 2020 stands out, the year of the start of the coronavirus pandemic, when 647,710 people were left without work.

In the just ended 2024, the economic sectors with the largest decreases in formal employment were construction, with a cut of 6.3 percent, and agriculture, with 2.5 percent.

The IMSS report mentions that the greatest growth was reported in transportation and communications, with 3.9 percent; trade, 2.8; electricity, 2.3, and business services, 2.1 percent. Next came social and communal services, with 1.9 percent; the extractive industry, 1.1, and the transformation industry, with 0.17 percent.

The states of the Republic most affected by job losses are Tabasco, with an annual decrease of 12.2 percent; Campeche, -4.2; Zacatecas, -2.8; Baja California, -1.6, and Sonora, -1.1 percent.

The entities with the greatest increase in employed people in 2024 were the state of Mexico (4.4 percent), Hidalgo (4.3), Guerrero (4), Chiapas (3.9) and Nuevo León (3.6 percent).

The number of employers was also reduced by 1.7 percent, bringing the institutional registry to one million 54,947 companies.

Regarding the average contribution base salary of IMSS affiliates, the report indicates that it was 587.4 pesos, a nominal annual increase of 9.2 percent.

In relation to independent workers, the institute mentioned that in December there was a record of 279,736 individuals with an associated average daily salary of 305 pesos.