Employment in 2009: A Brief Review of the Damage

Abstract

The world crisis has hit Mexico, like many other countries, mainly in terms of employment. However, it is not enough to just talk about the number of jobs lost; what is needed is a greater understanding of the trends in the job market in the last year (2009). This brief article underlines several phenomena: the impact was different according to gender; in short, more men than women were laid off. However, on the other hand, women had to take jobs in both the formal and informal sectors at lower wages and with worse working conditions. Also, in general, conditions of employment worsened because the number of workers with temporary jobs or no contract at all increased vis-à-vis the total number of workers. The author also underlines the impact of unemployment by educational level, hitting more educated workers harder. Finally, he looks at unemployment by age group, noting that while there is clearly a structural problem in that most unemployed are young people, the youngest workers (from 14 to 19 years of age) were less affected by the crisis. As the article explains, however, this is not necessarily good news.