The Secretary of Economy, Marcelo Ebrard, attributed the sharp drop in formal employment that was recorded in December to the uncertainty generated by the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, especially in relation to trade and tariff policies.
“I believe that the issue of employment is closely linked to what is happening in the United States because there is global uncertainty and, obviously, that generates many economic phenomena; However, I must say that we have all the elements to not only recover, but also exceed the employment levels that have been observed,” he said at a press conference prior to his participation in a forum on the occasion of the National Development Plan 2025-2030.
According to IMSS figures, in December there was a drop of 405,259 in the number of affiliates, equivalent to a reduction of 1.8%, compared to the previous month, the highest for the same month since records began (in 2000).
Read: Mexico has its December with the most formal job losses
In addition, it is the largest job destruction since April 2020, when just over half a million jobs were lost due to the impact of Covid-19. Without considering the variations that were due to the pandemic, the 1.8% drop is the largest since December 2018 (1.85%).
The Secretary of Economy trusted that in the coming months “we can resume the march”, once it is clear that the margin of uncertainty is reducing.
He specified that if Donald Trump talks about tariffs and tariffs, Mexico cannot respond because it has not yet assumed the presidency of the United States, and has not yet imposed any tariffs or tariffs, so we have to wait and see what it does.
Read: More gunpowder for Trump: US trade deficit grows in November
However, “uncertainty has some effect on the economy, it is what we are seeing both here and there, but also in Japan, also in South Korea, also in Europe. Once the next administration of the most powerful country today, the leading world power, enters, we will be able to reduce uncertainty,” said the official.
He assured that Mexico is prepared (for the policies implemented by Donald Trump), but “cannot give the details of the strategy (…), but we are ready, we have been working on this for months, we know what we are going to do in each case of the feasible scenarios There will be no surprises and preparations have all been made to be on time and in shape and react intelligently,” he noted.
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