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Mexico Recasts Formal Employment at 26.5 Million as Employer Rolls Contract and Platform Pilot Falls Short

By counting ISSSTE and other public regimes, the labor ministry broadens its formal metric, underscoring ongoing vulnerability among small registered employers in 2025.

Overview

  • STPS’s methodological update reports 26.5 million people in formal employment, equal to 44.6% of the employed population, leaving informality at 55.4% or about 33 million workers.
  • IMSS closed 2025 with a record 22,517,076 formal positions and annual growth of 278,697 jobs, even as the registry of employers fell by 25,667 to 1,029,280, the steepest annual drop on record.
  • Private analysis highlights the concentration of employer losses among micro firms, including declines of 7,408 with one worker and 13,883 with two to five workers, signaling structural fragility.
  • Mexico City ended 2025 with 3,675,580 IMSS-affiliated workers, adding 196,226 jobs for a 5.64% annual increase and maintaining the highest insured workforce in the country.
  • The platforms pilot identified 912,000 workers, yet only 206,521 (22.6%) met the income threshold for full IMSS coverage, with the rest limited to risk insurance as authorities stress no observed hit to platform employment.