Millions –exactly 31.6– of male and female workers in the country go to work or do so from their homes without protection that fully guarantees their labor rights. Without contracts, without access to housing, without access to health institutions, with hours greater than the limit established by the LFT or with intermittent income.
The labor informality has accompanied the recovery of the labor market in Mexico as well as formal employment. Although affiliations to the IMSS have reached historic levels in recent months, 55.7% of the working population still does so informally, according to figures from the ENOE (National Occupation and Employment Survey) as of March 2022.
This reflects that more than half of those who have an occupation in Mexico are in vulnerable conditions in some work environment.
Labor informality affected the female labor population with greater force. While 55.1 of working men are in this condition, the rate for women climbs to 56.8 percent.
One of the most serious implications of the persistence of such a large informal labor market is the absence of universal and free access to health care and prevention services. As of March 2022, 21.6 million workers (61.1% of the total) were registered as not having this right.
Much of the labor informality is concentrated in the sectors of retail trade, services, manufacturing industries, domestic work and agricultural activities.
The ENOE figures also reflected regional disparities; If only the urban regions are considered (aggregate of 32 cities), the labor informality rate drops to 44.2%, just under half of the total number of workers.