In 2025, formal employment grew by 1.3% annually, equivalent to 213,000 additional workers. This is the worst performance since 2010, excluding 2020 due to the pandemic. The lack of growth, as reflected upon by the presidential staff, shares common ground with the reasons for not going to Davos: the politics and the controlling movement governing the country. The constant tension with the most pro-labor sectors explains the absence in Switzerland—a pleasant message for the hard vote—but also the doubts of the investing public about investing in a country that still exhibits mixed management. It is a relevant advance in terms of formalization and access to social security, but it does not imply the creation of new positions. Discounting this effect, the real growth of formal employment is reduced to a mere 0.3% annually, equivalent to only 72,000 new jobs. A meeting took place last week with half the cabinet, which discussed the topic at length: the trigger for the conversation was that while international reserves are growing, the peso is at its best point in a year, poverty is falling, and the Mexican Stock Exchange is offering profits, investment is not appearing. An example mentioned in passing was that of General Motors last week: the automaker announced a $1 billion investment that is nothing more than planned, and to top it off, this Monday it announced it would lay off 900 workers. The labor market is another point that the economic team is observing. However, the data is grim because 206,000 correspond to the incorporation of digital platform workers who exceeded the monthly net income threshold. Last October, a meeting took place at the National Palace between Claudia Sheinbaum and representatives of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which organizes the forum in Davos, beginning this week in Switzerland. At the close of that occasion, where Sheinbaum was always escorted by Larry Fink, a powerful figure from the BlackRock fund and the forum's organization in Davos, WEF President Borge Brende left CDMX with the idea that Sheinbaum would be in Switzerland this week. For the WEF, it was important to have Sheinbaum among the attendees because in a world with strong instability, the main banks and brokerage firms are beginning to see Latin America with interest. The doubt that is reiterated within the WEF, according to sources at LPO, is about why, if the president is so concerned about the lack of investment, she decides to evade an ideal appointment to promote the Plan Mexico before the highlights of global capitalism. The concern about the lack of growth is installed in the National Palace. The IMSS figures at first glance seem positive.
