A million 976 thousand 60 people were unemployed during the first three months of 2020, prior to the crisis in the country by COVID-19, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), a body that, just because of the pandemic, will not be able to apply this survey to record with the same methodology how many will be added to the register of unemployment by the health crisis.
The figure of the unemployed at the end of the first quarter of 2020 is just 89,000 more people compared to the same period in 2019. According to the National Employment and Occupation Survey (ENOE), the number of unemployed is equivalent to 3.5% of the Economically Active Population (PEA), the same rate as that reported in the first quarter of 2019.
In the first quarter of the year, before the coVID-19 emergency, in Mexico the workforce was 57.3 million people, and of these, 55.4 million were occupied.
#ENOE in 2020-T1, before the health emergency in #México, a workforce was estimated #PEA 57.3 million people, of whom 55.4 million were occupied and nearly 2 million unemployed. pic.twitter.com/8kxlNLfgX1
— Julio A. Santaella (@SantaellaJulio) May 19, 2020
As for the Underworked Population, the one who has the need and availability to offer more working time than its current occupation demands it, reached 4.7 million people. This figure increased by just 0.8% compared to the same quarter in 2019.
Informal sector
Based on the results of the ENOE, INEGI pointed out 31 million 41 thousand 234 people are part of the Informal Occupied Population. This group includes the informal sector, paid domestic work, unprotected agricultural work, and subordinate workers who, although working in a formal way, do so without social security.
Read: Unemployment rate drops to 3.3% in March; is lower than in 2019
In this area, the rate stood at 56% and also remained unchanged from the fourth quarter of 2019.
According to The Inegi figures in Mexico, there are 126,661,703 inhabitants, of which 95,784,628 are 15 years of age or older and 57,328,364 are part of the Economically Active Population (PEA).
From the PEA, 55,352,304 are occupied and one million 976 thousand 60 unoccupied.
Suspended survey
INEGI released the country’s pre-crisis unemployment figures for COVID-19.
THE ENOE is one of the surveys that INEGI suspended as soon as phase 2 of the pandemic was decreed for the new coronavirus in Mexico. INEGI reported that mechanisms will be sought to collect employment information, either by telephone or online, to understand the impact of the health crisis.
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