Over the past
decade
and a half,
the structure
of
Mexican employment has undergone deep
changes. The production-based workforce-the
source of stable jobs that pay wages above the
poverty line-has ceased to grow. In the meantime,
there has been an increase in low-paying, unstable
jobs that carry no benefits.
The opening of the economy in 1982 brought
with it a slowing down of the growth of domestic demand, and the substitution of imported for
Table 2
REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE EM
POPULATION
(All figures are percentages.)
Manufacturing Commerce
Region 1980 1993 1980 1993
Central States
Southern States
59.6 47.4 52.7 48.7
10.3 9.0 15.5 17.4
Northern States 29.9 43.6 31.6 34.0 Source- Authors’ calculations based on the 1981 and 1994 Econon states include Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, San states further north. Southern states include Guerrero, Oaxaca, Ve further south.
stripping the country’s government-controlled union
movement of its legitimacy. High real interest rates are
crowding out domestic businesspeople, and radicaliz-
ing-at least temporarily–the small business owners of
El Barz6n. Cheap products from U.S. agribusiness are
depriving campesino producers of a market, providing
fertile organizing ground for groups like Cesder. To bor-
by Teresa Rend6n and Carlos Salas
domestically produced goods. As a result, the non- maquila manufacturing sector is no longer able to
generate new jobs.
The contraction of domestic demand has led
Mexican investors to look increasingly to commerce
and services as vehicles of investment. This has led to the growth of these two sectors as sources of
new jobs. [See Table 1.]
While this has brought about the creation of larger firms in these two sectors, the proliferation
of tiny, two or three-person busi-
nesses, typically employing non-
OR waged family and individual labor, continues unabated. There
1995 has thus been a growth of
33,721 employment in very small-scale
100% enterprises as well as a weaken- ing of the trend toward the cre- 25% ation of a wage-labor force. 15% These trends, together with
6% the consistent decline in real
19% wages, have led families to send
35% an increasing number of family
nal de Empleo, 1995. members into the workforce to bolster household income.
Integral to this development
is the growing labor-force par-
“ticipation of women and
OYED Iteenagers.
Finally, the maquiladora indus-
try has expanded continuously
Services since 1980, and especially in the past few years. Between 1988 1980 1993 and 1993, 41% of all new waged
54.2 52.5 jobs in manufacturing were cre- ated in the maquila sector. Since
16.0 16.2 most maquiladoras are still located near the U.S. border, 29.7 31.3 their growth has led to a move- ic Census. Northern ment northward of employment. Luis Potosi and all While not all of this job creation ra.Cuz and all states has taken place in the border
states, there has clearly been a
deepening of regional differ-
Graduate Studies at ences, as jobs move northward. [See Table 2.10
Vol XXX, No 4 JAN/FEB 1997
Table 1
LABOR FORCE ACCORDING TO SEC
1979
Working Population (in thousands) 19,177
Total 100%
Agriculture 29%
Manufacturing 19%
Other industries 8%
Commerce 14%
Services 30%
Source: Encuesta Continua sore Ocupaci6n, 1979; Encuesta Nacio
Teresa Rend6n and Carlos Salas are economists in the Division of the Nationa Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
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