The number of employers continues to decline: IMSS

The number of employers registered with the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) continued to decline in January 2026; In its monthly measurement, 5,842 entrepreneurs disappeared and compared to last year the drop was 25,992. Insecurity – theft, extortion and collection of fees – is the biggest obstacle to opening a business in Mexico, overcoming the lack of credit, the tax burden and the general economic situation, according to a survey by Research Land, the market research agency of Grupo UPAX.

Insecurity is not only a perception, but a real economic burden. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, the total cost of crimes that affected companies amounted to 124,300 million pesos in 2023, equivalent to 0.51 percent of the gross domestic product; and affected 1.3 million establishments, about 27 percent of all businesses in the country at that time. “Today the question is not whether the business is profitable, but whether it will survive insecurity. And that perception of risk is reconfiguring investment decisions,” said Pablo Levy, general director of Research Land.

The IMSS highlighted that the drop in the number of employer registrations responds to “the implementation of (social) security measures in the opening of employer registrations of natural persons.”

According to the Research Land survey, 84 percent of people say they have seen at least one nearby business close or move in the recent year because of crime.

Although 45 percent of Mexicans said they felt very confident about opening a business if they had extra savings, 27 percent would do so with caution and would prefer digital models to reduce risks. “Digitalization has become a self-protection strategy.” However, 28 percent would not invest under any circumstances, stating that insecurity outweighs any other economic consideration.