Over the past decade and a half, the structure of Mexican employment has undergone deep changes. The production-based workforce-the source of stable jobs that pay wages above the poverty line-has ceased to grow. In the meantime, there has been an increase in low-paying, unstable jobs that carry no benefits. The opening of the economy in 1982 brought with it a slowing down of the growth of domestic demand, and the substitution of imported for Table 2 REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE EM POPULATION (All figures are percentages.) Manufacturing Commerce Region 1980 1993 1980 1993 Central States Southern States 59.6 47.4 52.7 48.7 10.3 9.0 15.5 17.4 Northern States 29.9 43.6 31.6 34.0 Source- Authors' calculations based on the 1981 and 1994 Econon states include Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, Aguascalientes, San states further north. Southern states include Guerrero, Oaxaca, Ve further south. stripping the country's government-controlled union movement of its legitimacy. High real interest rates are crowding out domestic businesspeople, and radicaliz- ing-at least temporarily--the small business owners of El Barz6n. Cheap products from U.S. agribusiness are depriving campesino producers of a market, providing fertile organizing ground for groups like Cesder. To bor- by Teresa Rend6n and Carlos Salas domestically produced goods. As a result, the non- maquila manufacturing sector is no longer able to generate new jobs. The contraction of domestic demand has led Mexican investors to look increasingly to commerce and services as vehicles of investment. This has led to the growth of these two sectors as sources of new jobs. [See Table 1.] While this has brought about the creation of larger firms in these two sectors, the proliferation of tiny, two or three-person busi- nesses, typically employing non- OR waged family and individual labor, continues unabated. There 1995 has thus been a growth of 33,721 employment in very small-scale 100% enterprises as well as a weaken- ing of the trend toward the cre- 25% ation of a wage-labor force. 15% These trends, together with 6% the consistent decline in real 19% wages, have led families to send 35% an increasing number of family nal de Empleo, 1995. members into the workforce to bolster household income. Integral to this development is the growing labor-force par- "ticipation of women and OYED Iteenagers. Finally, the maquiladora indus- try has expanded continuously Services since 1980, and especially in the past few years. Between 1988 1980 1993 and 1993, 41% of all new waged 54.2 52.5 jobs in manufacturing were cre- ated in the maquila sector. Since 16.0 16.2 most maquiladoras are still located near the U.S. border, 29.7 31.3 their growth has led to a move- ic Census. Northern ment northward of employment. Luis Potosi and all While not all of this job creation ra.Cuz and all states has taken place in the border states, there has clearly been a deepening of regional differ- Graduate Studies at ences, as jobs move northward. [See Table 2.10 Vol XXX, No 4 JAN/FEB 1997 Table 1 LABOR FORCE ACCORDING TO SEC 1979 Working Population (in thousands) 19,177 Total 100% Agriculture 29% Manufacturing 19% Other industries 8% Commerce 14% Services 30% Source: Encuesta Continua sore Ocupaci6n, 1979; Encuesta Nacio Teresa Rend6n and Carlos Salas are economists in the Division of the Nationa Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
