Mexico’s unemployment rate fell to 4.9 percent of the workforce in the second quarter of 2014, down slightly from 5 percent in the same period of last year, authorities said.
A total of 2.5 million people were out of work in the April-June period in Mexico, whose workforce of 52.1 million people represents 58.6 of the nation’s population, the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, or Inegi, said Wednesday.
The underemployed population, or those with the need and willingness to work longer hours than what their current job allows, fell to 8.2 percent of all employed persons, down from 8.5 percent in the second quarter of 2013.
Inegi considers as employed any person 14 years of age or older who works at least six hours a week at any occupation.
A total of 28.6 million people were part of the informal economy in the second quarter (accounting for 57.8 percent of the employed population), down 2.3 percent from the April-June 2013 period.
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Of the employed population, 61.5 percent worked in the services sector, 24.3 percent in manufacturing, and 13.7 percent in the primary sector (agriculture, forestry, fishing and mining).
Nearly 68 percent of Mexican workers are salaried, 22.2 percent are self-employed, 5.8 percent do not receive set salaries because they work in family-owned businesses and 4.2 percent are employers.
Mexico has a population of 119.5 million, according to the latest projections based on the 2010 census, of whom 53.3 million live in poverty.
