The central and south-southeast regions concentrated 74.5% of the labor losses nationwide.
The Covid-19 reduced the sources of formal jobs during the past year throughout the country, registering 647,710 layoffs; However, in this panorama of job uncertainty, three states managed to show positive balances: Baja California, Chihuahua, and Tabasco.
Baja California Sur.
According to data from the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, Baja California was the first place in the generation of formal jobs, with 27,952 workers insured by the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS).
The main strength of the border state, which is its economic vocation, was the set of transformation industries, with 29,023 new arrivals; Agriculture, livestock, forestry, fishing, and hunting followed with 3,099; transportation and communications with 902; trade with 541; extractive industries with 108, and electricity industry and water collection and supply with 66.
However, three economic sectors presented layoffs: social and community services (728), construction (2,440), and services for companies, individuals, and home services (2,619).
By type of employment, of the 27,952 jobs created in Baja California, 25,986 corresponded to permanent jobs and 2,407 to temporary jobs from the countryside, while 441 jobs were lost in temporary urban jobs.
This entity stood out in the Mexican labor market for encouraging, through fiscal support schemes, social aid, and productive investment, its main sector: manufacturing. Also, all of its municipalities are, since 2019, in the federal free zone program (double the minimum wage, VAT at 8%, ISR at 20%, and homologation of fuel prices with those of the United States).
Chihuahua.
The second position was for Chihuahua –it has municipalities in a free zone– by presenting 10,695 new formal jobs in 2020. Like Baja California, its engine was manufacturing, with 26,711 jobs created; Other important sectors were transportation and communications (1,492), social and communal services (679), and the electricity industry, and water collection and supply (125).
Meanwhile, its weaknesses were primary activities (loss of 361 jobs), extractive industries (501), commerce (2,148), construction (4,041), and services for companies, individuals, and home services (11,261).
Of its 10,695 new jobs, 6,097 refer to permanent jobs, 4,480 to temporary urban jobs, and 118 to temporary jobs in the countryside.
These results show that these two northern states took advantage of their manufacturing vocation and the benefits of the border program to recover the places lost due to the total confinement and stoppage of non-essential activities in April and May, as well as the low operation and capacity in the following months.
Tabasco.
Tabasco, an oil territory, completed the podium of the only entities that generated formal jobs last year, with 2,993 registrations in the IMSS. It is striking that it was its second year in a row with a positive balance, since as of mid-2014, due to the decrease in crude prices and oil production, it plunged into an economic crisis.
The state government’s commitment to combat the ravages of Covid-19 was public works, an action that was reflected in the creation of jobs in the construction industry, with 7,435 positions, the highest figure. Other sectors with hiring were primary activities with 519; social and communal services with 188, and the electricity industry and the collection and supply of drinking water with 18. The branch with the greatest decline was services for companies, individuals, and home services (3,534).
Of the total, 4,852 were temporary urban and 502 from the countryside, while 2,361 permanent layoffs were registered.
The engine off.
At the other pole was Mexico City, the economic engine of the country, as it was the state that lost the most formal jobs in 2020, with 223,379. Its weaknesses were services for companies, individuals, and home services (150,766); commerce (50,513), and transformation industries (30,025).
However, the capital’s strategy of economic reactivation focused on construction paid off, as this sector created 6,620 jobs.
Mexico City was followed by Quintana Roo (-97,381), Puebla (-39,172) and Guanajuato (-34,700).
Regional.
Of the 647,710 jobs lost last year in the country, 48.4% corresponded to the center and 26.0% to the south-southeast, that is, of the total layoffs, three-quarters were concentrated in these two regions.
Source: eleconomista.com.mx