Unemployment Sees Slight Recovery in December

Although Mexico City and the State of Mexico returned to red in the epidemiological traffic light and all non-essential activity had to stop, Mexico's unemployment rate registered a decline in December to 3.8 percent, or 2.1 million people, compared to 4.8 percent in November. According to INEGI, this represents its lowest level since March 2020. This represents the percentage of the Economically Active Population (EAP) who did not work at the time of the survey but who did some activity to earn a living. The male unemployment rate was 3.9 percent and the female unemployment rate was 3.7 percent. In June last year, the unemployment rate reached its highest level in 2020 at 5.5 percent. The rate has been declining since then, as a result of economic recovery.

The impact of the crisis brought by COVID-19 also led to an increase in informality. By the end of 2020, the labor informality rate was 55.8 percent, INEGI revealed. This represents a total of 29.5 million people in the informal labor market.

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• With the upcoming opening of IKEA’s physical store, the company is chasing former Best Buy employees. “We are supporting Best Buy and its workers to find a job opportunity through virtual fairs, following our job creation campaign given our opening at Encuentro Oceanía,” said Malcolm Pruys during an interview with Forbes. IKEA’s decision to chase after Best Buy's talent was similar to the one taken by Steren, another retailer focused on electronics and technology.

• Seven out of 10 women believe that they will find it difficult to climb the career ladder due to the pandemic, a study by Deloitte Global revealed. According to the study, 82 percent of the women surveyed were negatively affected by the pandemic as they have found it difficult to balance their work and personal lives, a situation that has had a negative impact on their overall well-being.

• The Mexican automotive sector managed to recover 76.2 percent of the jobs lost due to the shutdown of assembly plants and the low external demand caused by the pandemic. Between March and June 2020, 64,285 people lost their jobs in the automotive sector, according to INEGI.

• In 3Q20, there was a 10 percent increase in major medical insurance premiums and a 3 percent increase in life insurance premiums, Edgar Karam, Vice President of the Mexican Association of Insurance Institutions (AMIS), said during a press conference.  Currently, only 1.3 percent of the population has insurance to cover expenses in the event of illness.