Employees Insured by IMSS
The tourism sector in Mexico is being very hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and economic hardship to the population serving visitors of international resort destinations like Cancún, Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta will be greater in scale and longer-lasting than that experienced in any other industry-dependent region over the past two decades.
Private-sector employment registered by IMSS in the states of Quintana Roo and Baja California Sur — which had for decades outperformed in terms of job creation — slumped almost 20% in the month of May after a 97% YoY plunge in commercial airport traffic in CUN and SJD with no respite in sight.
For reference, formal employment in the states of Baja California and Chihuahua — where the export-led manufacturing hubs of Tijuana and Cd. Juárez are located — shrunk by almost 12% YoY in June 2009. This development was a byproduct of the financial crisis that momentarily brought the manufacturing sector in North America to its knees. In the motor vehicle industry, for instance, production in Mexico fell by 48% from June 2008 to 2009 but twelve months later, in 2010, unit output had rebounded to an all-time historical high for the month of June.
In the region comprised by Campeche and Tabasco — where crude oil production represented 66% of GDP in 2017 — IMSS-registered employment fell slightly more than 12% YoY in July 2016. The driver behind this drop was draconian budget cuts to Mexico’s national oil company, PEMEX, as crude oil export prices fell from a level of 96 USD/barrel in July 2014 to an average of 39 in July 2016 and then proceeded to recoup ground reaching 66 USD/barrel in July 2018.