The covid-19 crisis and its effects on employment and poverty in Mexico

Abstract

COVID-19 has caused a serious crisis in emerging economies, bringing increased unemployment rates and millions of inhabitants living in extreme poverty. The objective of this document is to analyze the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, unemployment and poverty in Mexico, a country that for several decades had been distinguished by various disparities in population sectors. To be consistent with this purpose, we will use theoretical contributions from authors who have paid in this regard, as well as presenting information that official instances of our country have released in the period from 2018 to date -National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Informatics (INEGI) and Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS). As a prelude, we can point out that the results obtained by these agencies show that, for the second quarter of 2020 compared to the same period of 2018, working poverty increased by almost 16 percentage points. While formal employment for the second quarter between 2019 and 2020, had a drop of approximately 1 point. The document closes with an outline of concrete alternatives that will have to be materialized in public policies so that the situation portrayed improves, that is, from our perspective we offer possible focuses where the federal and local governments should focus their efforts in terms of programs and Actions aimed at the vulnerable population, which obviously implies the need for greater public investment for infrastructure that allows economic reactivation.