The crisis of formal employment in Mexico has worsened in recent months, reaching the point where more than 70% of job seekers will not be able to find work this year. Manpower, a global human resources firm, has reported that a maximum of 350,000 jobs affiliated with the IMSS are expected to be created this year, which barely covers 29.16% of the positions demanded by the population estimated at least 1.2 million jobs according to the OECD.
This means that 70.83% of those seeking a job opportunity will remain without formal employment in 2025 and are likely to be forced to turn to the informal economy to support their families. According to Manpower and the OECD, between 548 and 958 jobs will open daily in Mexico during 2025, a figure that is well below the 3,287 positions per day that the country needs.
Manpower's Employment Expectations Survey for the second quarter of 2025 indicates that companies in Mexico plan to open a maximum of 90,000 positions between April and June, representing a 70% decrease compared to the first quarter. The proportion of companies planning to hire has decreased from 48% to 46%, while those anticipating layoffs has fallen from 16% to 13%.
According to Fernando Bermúdez Pire, director of Institutional Relations at ManpowerGroup, the employment situation in Mexico could worsen even further, especially with the potential impact of tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. Although it is hard to predict the exact effect of these tariff measures on job generation, there could be a decrease in job creation in some industries.
Despite the decline in job creation at the national level, some industries in Mexico, such as transportation, logistics, automotive, life sciences and health, finance, real estate, consumer goods, information technologies, among others, plan to increase their hiring in the coming months. Geographically, the most active labor markets are located in Mexico City, the Northwest, and the Center, followed by the Northeast, West, North, and Southeast.
