The population universe that cannot buy a basic basket with its income is now at its lowest point, not only since the beginning of the pandemic, but also since 17 years ago, when an international financial crisis between 2008 and 2009 collapsed economic activity. , noted BBVA, when commenting on official data published this week.
According to an analysis prepared by the bank with figures taken from the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval), between January and March 35.8 percent of Mexicans were in working poverty, a decrease of 1.9 points percentages when compared to the 37.7 percent reported in the same period last year.
Working poverty in Mexico is at historic lows not observed for 17 years, when in the third quarter of 2007 it registered a value of 35.2 percent. The indicator is not only at lower levels than those observed prior to the pandemic, but is also lower than the levels reported before the global financial recession of 2008 and 2009.
BBVA specified.
He stated that the recovery of the working poverty indicator to levels lower than those observed before the pandemic was faster in rural areas than in urban areas, since in the first case, since the first quarter of last year it has been below the period in mention and between January and March 2024 it stood at 49.6 percent.
For its part, the population living in working poverty in the urban area only in this last quarter reached a level lower than that recorded before the pandemic. It is at a level of 31.4 percent.
BBVA pointed out that the evolution of working poverty among the states has been heterogeneous in the last four years and for the first quarter of 2024, 14 states in the country still had levels of working poverty higher than those registered in the first quarter of 2020.
“The case of Aguascalientes stands out, which in the first quarter of 2020 had a working poverty level of 30.6 percent and after four years, in the first quarter of 2024, the indicator was 38 percent… Michoacán, Guanajuato, Nuevo León and Querétaro are other states that stand out and have working poverty percentages of 2.4 to 3.5 percentage points above pre-pandemic levels,” he specified.
Otherwise, he mentioned, San Luis Potosí, Campeche and Nayarit, between the first quarter of 2020 and the same quarter of 2024, managed to reduce working poverty between 7.2 to 11.1 percentage points.
Likewise, between January and March of this year, Baja California Sur (with an index of 16.7 percent), Baja California (21.7), Jalisco (22.1), Nuevo León (22.8) and Colima (22.8 percent) were the states with the lowest proportions of people in this condition; while Chiapas (63.6 percent), Oaxaca (59.7), Guerrero (54.9), Zacatecas (48.3) and Hidalgo (47.6 percent) reported the highest indicators.
Among workers in the formal sector, only 1.1 percent were in a situation of working poverty, while in the informal sector the percentage was 20.3 percent. At the same time, 15.9 percent of employed women were in working poverty, a level higher than that reported by men, of 9.2 percentage points.