• RECORD: Mexico recorded a loss of 555,247 jobs in April, its worst monthly employment drop in history, amid a national lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. The loss is larger than the total 342,000 jobs Mexico gained during all of 2019.
• GEOGRAPHY: The Mexican states leading in jobs lost in April were the Caribbean Coast state of Quintana Roo, the Pacific Coast state of Baja California Sur and the Southern state of Guerrero, all tourism dependent. Still, the construction industry suffered the largest job loss by far.
• ESTIMATES: Following a series of downward forecasts, analysts at BBVA financial group predicted in late April that the Mexican economy could contract by 7% in 2020 causing a loss between 893,000 and 1.1 million jobs. If the GDP outlook continued to deteriorate the loss could be greater.
• WORSE: “We estimate that in April we will have 500,000 fewer jobs. The truth is that it was thought that we were going to see a larger decline”, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Saturday arguing that his policies had been effective at helping small and medium-sized enterprises.
