Is unemployment a priority for the Mexican government?

The allocation of resources to government departments and federal programs is an indicator of which areas are a priority for each administration. This time, amid an economic crisis and a surge in unemployment sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal government proposed to cut its employment program by 92%.

In 2018, the government allocated MXN 975 million; however, its budget decreased in 2019, when authorities allocated MXN 722 million. It received MXN 704 million in 2020. The federal government plans to eliminate 92% of its budget in 2021 and allocate MXN 55 million for its operation next year.

This decision indicates that helping unemployed people to find a job , trough job fairs and the program, is not a priority for the Mexican government, nor training them so they can work on their own. Moreover, it won’t be a priority to help employees acquire new abilities so they can be promoted to other positions. The access to all these programs allows unemployed people to acquire new knowledge and find new opportunities.

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Experts said that the proposal to defund this program is tied to the federal government’s decision to allocate resources to priority programs such as “Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro,” “Sembrando Vida,” and the construction of major projects such as the Santa Lucía airport, and the Mayan Train.

However, the selective allocation of resources could be counterproductive for the country. The majority of unemployed people would have no choice but to enter the informal sector, which means they would not pay taxes or have access to social security.

Although the federal government is not directly responsible for the creation of new jobs, it is responsible for the creating of proper conditions so that companies can create them, as well as for protecting workers' rights. The federal administration will always play a key role in the labor market, although its latest decision indicates that it will no longer help those who recently lost their jobs. This is why the government should reconsider its decision to implement budget cuts in this area.

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