According to data from the IMSS, temporary labour has the highest rate of the past 13 years.

Two years have gone by since the labour reform that seemed to be the solution to serious unemployment and precarious work problems in our country was passed. Since then, there has been a tendency towards temporary employment that happens together with higher flexibility when hiring and dismissing workers and more regulation on outsourced or subcontracted workers; furthermore, there is more “elasticity” between formal employment growth and Gross Domestic Product.

The truth is temporary employment’s evolution, when seen as a percentage of formal employment as a whole, has been increasing. By 2013 it showed the highest rate of the past 13 years. The proportion is +14, 5%, since the +10,3% rate of 2000.

It has been almost two years since president Enrique Peña Nieto started his term of office, a fact that coincides with the maturing period of changes made to the Federal Act of Labour (LFT).  According to the IMSS, during these 23 months, temporary formal employment has grown +8, 2% and permanent employment +6, 2%

Nevertheless, the tendency has been deeper on 2014, as during the past 10 months, temporary employment has grown +10, 8%, twice the +4% rate of permanent employment.

Sectors considered

Out of the 9 economic sectors the IMSS analyses, only three stand out in temporary employment records: construction, transformation industry and social services.

David Kaplan, senior economist of the Labour Market and Social Security Area at the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Mexico, stated that “two years is a short period of time to measure the impact of a structural reform. We may only infer preliminary results”, among which is the accelerated growth of temporary employment.

Source: Informador MX