Jalisco’s informal economic sector has grown some 15 percent in the last six years, employing 885,000 people, up from 769,000 in 2006.
One business chamber says the informal economy is creating jobs three-to-one over the formal sector.
On a national level, 16.5 million people are employed in the informal sector while the formal sector employs accounts for just 15.3 million.
In Guadalajara some 529,000 informal merchants operate, a figure that the local Chamber of Commerce says is equivalent to 10 billion pesos in lost taxes.The Instituto Mexicano de Seguro Social (IMSS) has seen 18,686 new formal sector jobs created in Jalisco in the first three months of 2012, of which, 11,721 are permanent positions. Total formal employment in the state is at 1,311,000, according to IMSS.
Mexico’s economy is expected to grow by 3.25 percent in 2012 despite the prevalent economic problems in Europe and the United States. Economic experts estimate an inflation rate of 3.65 percent, an average exchange rate of 13 pesos to the dollar and the creation of 505,000 new jobs.