Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, July 24, 2026 – Mexico’s labor market lost nearly 320,000 occupied positions in June, erasing the limited gains recorded earlier this year as unemployment increased and fewer people participated in the workforce.
The number of employed people fell from 60.4 million in May to 60.1 million in June, a decline of 319,633, according to the latest INEGI employment survey. Employment ended the first half of 2026 with a net deficit of 293,227 positions compared with December.
The decline changes the picture reported one month earlier, when Mexico had added almost no net employment through May despite growth in the working-age population.
INEGI’s survey measures people who completed at least one hour of economic activity during the reference week. It is broader than registered payroll employment and includes self-employed, unpaid and informal workers.
Unemployment reached 2.9 percent, its highest reading since September 2025. The number of unemployed people rose by 77,843 during June and reached 1.79 million, up by 132,112 compared with June 2025.
The unemployment rate alone does not capture the full weakening. Mexico’s economic participation rate fell from 59.1 percent in May to 58.8 percent in June. The economically inactive population increased by nearly 286,000 during the month, meaning many people who stopped working were not counted as unemployed because they did not actively seek another position.
Seasonally adjusted figures show a smaller but still negative shift. Once recurring calendar effects are removed, the employment rate declined by 0.1 percentage point while unemployment rose by 0.1 point to 2.8 percent. Economic participation fell by 0.2 percentage point.
The losses were concentrated in industries and services. Manufacturing employment declined by 482,652 during June, while construction lost 120,877 positions. Agriculture, livestock and fishing added nearly 400,000 workers, offsetting part of the contraction elsewhere, according to an analysis of the monthly employment data.
Puerto Vallarta’s exposure is most evident in the national figures covering restaurants, lodging and commerce. Restaurants and accommodation services lost an estimated 320,303 workers between May and June, while commerce declined by 277,588.
Compared with June 2025, the official data show 54,898 fewer workers in restaurants and lodging and 75,615 fewer in commerce. Those figures do not establish an equivalent decline in Puerto Vallarta because the monthly release contains no city-level breakdown. They do show weakness in the sectors that support a large share of employment across tourism-dependent communities.
Labor quality also remained uneven. Informal employment covered 33.1 million people, equal to 55 percent of everyone working. That rate was slightly above the 54.8 percent recorded one year earlier.
The share of workers experiencing critical employment conditions rose from 36.7 percent to 38.5 percent. INEGI places workers in this category when hours, earnings, or a combination of both fall within specified inadequate conditions.
Subemployment moved in the opposite direction. About 3.9 million workers said they needed and were available to work additional hours, down by 489,000 compared with June 2025. The subemployment rate dropped from 7.4 percent to 6.6 percent.
Women carried the annual decline in employment. The number of employed women fell by 165,755 compared with June 2025, while employment among men increased by 82,004. Women also recorded a higher unemployment rate at 3 percent, compared with 2.8 percent among men.
Longer periods without work became more common. The number of people unemployed longer than six months nearly doubled from a year earlier, reaching almost 124,000. Another 278,787 had been searching between three and six months, an annual increase of more than 68,000.
INEGI will publish July’s employment results on August 27. That report will show whether June marked a temporary monthly setback or a deeper loss of momentum entering the second half of 2026.
