With an exit of 235,000 individuals from the unemployed population in February, the unemployment rate achieved its lowest figure since March of last year.

The unemployment rate decreased from 2.9 to 2.5% between January and February of this year. With this, unemployment reached its lowest level in the last 10 months, according to the National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE).

Alongside the good performance of unemployment, job creation regained its momentum after stumbling at the beginning of 2024. The National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) reported that 492,132 jobs were created in February.

In the second month of the year, just over 235,000 people exited the unemployed population; that is, those who do not have a job but are actively seeking one. Meanwhile, labor inactivity also decreased, with the “available” workforce within the economically inactive population (NEETs) decreasing by 277,105 people.

These movements were reflected in a monthly decrease in the extended unemployment rate, which includes both the unemployed and those inactive but available for work, which decreased from 10.3 to 9.6% as a proportion of the potential workforce between January and February. This is the lowest figure since the ENOE survey began in 2005.

On the other hand, job creation for the month was mostly concentrated in the informal economy. 97% of the new positions were in the informal sector, totaling 476,607 jobs under this condition; only 15,525 people obtained formal employment.

As a result, the informality rate increased by 0.4 percentage points monthly to reach 54.5% of the workforce. This was the second consecutive month of increase.