The National Statistics and Geography Institute (INEGI) reports that 2.6 million of the country’s Economically Active Population (PEA) – around five percent – are unemployed as of the end of the second quarter of 2013. That is up 122,000 from the same quarter last year. In urban areas the unemployment rate reached six percent.
The rates are not comparable to unemployment in most other countries, since INEGI counts as employed all those who work at least one hour per week.
In a country where the official inflation rate is reported as about four percent per year, but prices of basic market basket items seem to jump by leaps and bounds almost monthly, the news that the unemployment rate reached five percent seems laughable at best. A look at any street corner, where a half a dozen or more people are trying to make a living selling any manner of items to motorists, tells you that real jobs are not available to a good many people in this country.INEGI also says that of the economically active population, some 59 percent — about 29 million — are employed in the informal economy and have received no benefits this year. This percentage is down by 0.8 percent from the second quarter of 2012.