30 million people working informally, INEGI reports

CDMX.- During the first quarter of 2018 , all forms of informal employment in Mexico made up 30 million people, representing a 1.2% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year, and representing a 56.7% of the employed population , according to results from the National Employment and Occupation Survey , conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI).

Informal employment, in its broadened measurement of informality, adds the following categories to the definition of informal employment: unprotected employment in the agricultural sector, remunerated domestic service in private homes, and subordinated workers who, though they work for formal economical units, they do so under certain modalities meant to avoid registration in social security.

More specifically, 14.4 million people confirmed to be employed in the informal sector . This figure meant an annual increase of 1.9% and constituted a 27.3% of the occupied population; 7.4 million correspond to private companies, government, and institutions; 5.9 million people belong to the agricultural sector, and another 2.3 million correspond to remunerated domestic service.

On the other hand, in the January-March quarter 2018 , the unoccupied sector of the population in the country mounted up to 1.7 million people , and the corresponding unemployment rate was of 3.1% of the economically active population, a smaller percentage than the 3.4% registered in the same quarter on 2017 .

Conditioned by job searches, the unemployment rate is higher in large towns and cities, where the job market is better organized. In the urbanest areas with populations of around 100 thousand people or more, the unemployment rate reached a 3.7% , as for the populations of between 15,000 and 100,000 people, the rate was of 3.1% ; for populations of between 2,500 and 15,200, the rate was of 2.6% , and in rural communities of less than 2,500 inhabitants, the rate settled at 2% .

The states that showed the highest unemployment rates during the first quarter of 2018 were: Tabasco, 7.6%; Durango and the State of Mexico, 4.3%; Coahuila, 4.1%; Chihuahua and Tamaulipas, 3.9%; Aguascalientes, Baja California Sur, Mexico City and Tlaxcala, 3.7% each; Nuevo León and Zacatecas, 3.6%, and Guanajuato, 3.5% with regard to overall labor force.

In contrast, the lowest rates were reported in the state of Guerrero, 1.2%; Oaxaca, 1.3%; Michoacán de Ocampo and Morelos, 1.9%; Chiapas and Yucatán, 2%; Baja California and Puebla, 2.1%; Jalisco, 2.3%, and Hidalgo and Sinaloa, 2.4%.

Finally, the sub-occupied segment of the population, which encompasses people who are currently employed, but in need of working extra hours in a complementary occupation or looking for a better job, rose to 3.6 million people during the first quarter of 2018 , and represented a 6.8% of employed people, which is inferior to the 7.1% of the previous year.

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