New Report Finds Two-Thirds of Mexico's Workforce has Informal Jobs Associated Press
go to original December 12, 2012

A fish vendor. More people have jobs, but not all are high-quality. (Eitan Abramovich/AFP/Getty Images)

MEXICO CITY - A report by Mexico's government says that about 60 per cent of economically active people in the country are employed in informal jobs with no contract and few or no benefits.

Mexico's National Statistics Institute has long used an older definition that said about 29 per cent of the country's 48.7-million-member workforce was informally employed, defined as having no stipulated wages, benefits or contract.

But the institute now says that definition was limited largely to street vendors, small food stands and other kinds of informal self-employment.

The new methodology presented Tuesday includes people who work for others in the farm sector and in household work, including maids.

By the broader accounting, 29.2 million Mexicans work informal jobs. Only about 39 per cent of Mexican workers have formal, contractual jobs.

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