In 2025, the level of informal employment increased to its highest level in the last three years, reaching a level of 55.4 percent; this poses a significant challenge for President Claudia Sheinbaum in achieving the goals set in Plan México.
Carla Martínez Santistevan, senior associate at the De la Vega & Martínez Rojas Law Firm, which specializes in labor law, explained to MILENIO that, despite the reforms in labor matters, which she deems appropriate for the strategy toward 2030, she still sees key challenges in its execution, such as not creating conditions that could incentivize an increase in informality
“Without exaggerating, I believe that the main risk for the success of Plan México is the high level of informality in Mexico, as people in many places work without contracts, social security, and basic benefits. Informal employment also has many facets,” she explained.
She said, as an example, that informal employment is not just someone who has a stall in the street, but mentioned that companies who have employees paid on a fee for service basis are also informal employers.
And she explained that the risk of informality is that formal employment will become the only one absorbing extra costs over wages, social security fees and any new labor obligations that are established.
This challenge is acknowledged by organizations like Coparmex [Employers’ Confederation of the Mexican Republic], even though they consider Plan Mexico as a strategy and an opportunity to make progress toward inclusive industrialization and development, promoting an economic growth that leaves no one behind.
In order to achieve this, however, it is necessary to prioritize small and medium-sized businesses as engines for generating more formal employment in the country.
What are the objectives of Plan Mexico in the labor arena?
A year ago, the Mexican government announced the so-called Plan México, which establishes a series of measures to drive the country’s development. In the area of labor, the project establishes the following goals for 2030:
– The creation of a million and a half specialized and well-paid jobs.
– The development of 12 hubs for industrial well-being with tax incentives. She explained that this brings a key focus on regionalization:
– Strengthening the internal market through wage recovery: She noted that this part refers to ensuring that the cumulative increase to wages exceeds the purchasing power of 2018 by more than 125%, reaching the objective of 2.5 basic food baskets by 2030.
– Training and the integration of “Youths Building the Future”.
“The regulatory framework and programs of Plan México are consistent with international standards for decent work. But the true challenge lies in the capacity of the formal market to absorb these changes while maintaining productivity”, she said.
She explained that if these reforms are poorly executed, they could cause employers, mainly SMEs, to opt for informality because of labor overregulation.
What is the progress that Plan México has made in labor matters?
Carla Martínez Santistevan explained that it is still too early to give a “grade” to the progress made by Plan México.
“It is still early to make a conclusive evaluation. Right now, indicators show a mixed picture,” she explained.
She noted that the following was reported, just for 2025:
– More than 550 thousand formal jobs created and an unemployment rate of 2.6%, one of the lowest ones at a global level.
– According to the INEGI [National Institute of Statistics and Geography], labor intermediation services were also strengthened with 167 offices of the National Employment Service and more than 300 employment fairs throughout the country.
Nevertheless: “These numbers must be put into context because, I mean, they sound very good, but they are also due to other circumstances. A portion of these recent formal jobs is linked to the reform that was made in regard to digital platforms which are, let us say, a completely different beast with many nuances”, she added.
Additionally, she noted that there was a significant loss of jobs in the country between 2024 and part of 2025, as well as a deceleration of the creation of formal jobs.
As well as an underemployment rate of 7.2 percent.
“There has not been any significant increase in the number of jobs for November of last year, there were around 22 million jobs, so it is not the growth that was expected. In technical terms, the plan has shown quantitative progress in employment, but it has not transformed the formalization of work in a substantial manner. This is where the opportunity lies. Investing more in productive infrastructure and not just in visible measures”, she explained.
“As long as salary and labor policies do not decrease, they will fall exclusively on the formal sector and this will limit its growth”, she added.
“In truth, good progress has been made so far (with Plan México), but I also believe that it is worth analyzing whether this overregulation is not pushing some employers to fall into informality”, she stated.
What actions should the government take in the implementation of Plan México?
According to the specialist, there is a “great opportunity” for the government to strengthen internal governance, particularly for small employers, and to support them during the transition.
“If they want to reach their objectives for 2030, there are several elements that I consider to be indispensable. One is that an integral strategy against informality be truly developed, and that said strategy be based on true incentives, not just on enforcement. Productivity policies with training linked to specific production processes”, she specified.
