Mexico's Occupied Population Rises by 412,000 in 1H26

Mexico's occupied population rose by 412,000 people in the first half of 2026, per STPS and INEGI's ENOE, while IMSS registered a record 22.78 million formal jobs for June. The unemployment rate ticked up to 2.9% month-over-month, and World Cup-linked hiring drove uneven formal job gains across host states. The data affects labor-intensive sectors, including transportation, manufacturing, and services, as well as investors monitoring Mexico's formal employment and nearshoring trends. 

Mexico's occupied population grew by 412,000 people between January and June 2026, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) reports, citing the National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE), produced by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI). The national unemployment rate stood at 2.9% at the close of June, while the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) registered 22.78 million formal positions, the highest figure for any June on record.

The STPS framed the increase around a first-half comparison rather than a single month. ENOE data show that the occupied population increased by 412,000 people between January and June. The Economically Active Population (EAP) reached 61.9 million people at the close of June, and the labor authority pointed to formal job registrations as a parallel indicator of the market's direction. According to IMSS, the country added 61,023 formal jobs in June alone, bringing job creation for the first half of 2026 to 262,628 positions, and pushing the year-over-year gain to 454,038 registered workers.

Youth employment reinforced the positive framing: workers between 18 and 29 years old rose by 204,000 in the year-over-year comparison.The distinction between the two data sources explains why the STPS emphasized a semiannual reading. The ENOE measures overall occupation, including self-employed workers, employers, and unpaid family labor, while IMSS registrations count only formal positions tied to social security contributions. That gap allows the STPS to report broad labor market growth even in months when formal job creation slows or monthly ENOE figures soften.  

The first-half narrative sits alongside a more mixed monthly picture. INEGI's own June data showed the occupied population contracting by 319,633 people compared with May, falling to 60,085,814, a figure also 83,751 lower than June 2025. The national unemployment rate, in turn, ticked up to 2.9% from 2.8% in May, its highest level since the start of the year. The divergence between the STPS's first-half framing and INEGI's month-over-month reading illustrates how the same dataset can support different narratives about the same labor market, depending on the comparison window used.  

Formal employment, measured through IMSS, showed a starker regional and sectoral pattern tied to a one-time event. Mexico City added 100,756 formal jobs in June, the largest monthly gain of any state, as hiring in transportation and services responded to the five FIFA World Cup matches hosted in the capital that month. Nationally, transportation and communications posted annual growth of 15.8%, well above other sectors, while annual formal job growth accelerated to 2.03% in June from 1.55% in May. Zoé Robledo, General Director, IMSS, attributed part of the gain to tournament-linked economic activity in mobility-related sectors during the matches held at Banorte Stadium.

Formal job growth was uneven across the host cities that received matches: while Mexico City posted its largest monthly gain of the year, Jalisco lost 18,626 formal jobs and Hidalgo lost 48,447 over the same period, indicating that tournament-related hiring concentrated in specific companies and sectors rather than spreading evenly across host regions.  

For businesses and investors tracking Mexico's labor market, the June data points to two parallel realities: a resilient headline picture, with record formal employment and a first-half occupation gain of 412,000 people, and a more cautious undertone, with monthly occupation contracting and unemployment inching higher.