The percentage of the population in Mexico with a work income lower than the monetary value of the food basket, an indicator known as labor poverty, grew in the fourth quarter of 2024 to 35.4%, according to data published by the Coneval.
The increase of 0.3 percentage points compared to 35.1%registered in the third quarter was given to a reduction of 40,700 occupied people, in addition to a decrease in real work income per capita (1.5%) and an increase in the value of the food basket in the urban field of 0.3%, according to the National Council for Evaluation of the Social Development Policy (Coneval).
The agency, close to disappearing due to the constitutional reform of last year, detailed in a statement that between the third and fourth quarter, labor poverty in the urban field remained practically unchanged, from 30.7% to 30.8%.
However, in rural areas, labor poverty had an increase of 2.2 percentage points, that is, it went from 48.5% to 50.7%.
“In such a way that labor poverty in rural areas reached its highest point of the last two years, to maintain this level the advances in labor poverty observed in the first three quarter of 2024 would be invested,” he said.
The Coneval added that the purchasing power of real per capita labor income had a 1.5% decrease between the third and fourth quarter, from 3,346.45 pesos to 3,294.97 real pesos per month.
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This change of labor income represented an approximate decrease of 51.49 real average real pesos compared to the third quarter.
He pointed out that real per capita income, both in rural and urban areas, presented a decrease, but, the deepest decrease occurred in rural areas after 1,912.81 pesos to 1,842.56 pesos, that is, a decrease of 3.7%.
In the urban area, the decrease was lower, from 2%, from 3,808,91 to 3,730.85 pesos per month, which represented 78.07 pesos less.
However, real per capita job income in the urban field remains twice than that of rural areas.
The Coneval added that between the third and fourth quarter he observed a decrease in all the entry quintiles.
The greatest reduction was presented in the first quintile (20% of the population with lower income), from 215.31 to 196.75 pesos, that is, a decrease of 8.6%.
In contrast, the last quintile (20% of the population with higher income) presented a 2.2% decrease in the period.
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