Mexico's informal employment rate stays above Latin American average
The International Labour Organization (ILO) reports that Mexico’s informal employment rate was 52.4 % in 2026, five percentage points higher than the regional average of 47.4 % for Latin America and the Caribbean. Updated INEGI data for the second quarter of 2026 shows the rate has risen further to about 55 %.
Despite the high informality, Mexico recorded a low unemployment rate of 2.6 % in the first quarter of 2026. The ILO notes that the country’s projected GDP growth for 2026 is between 1.3 % and 1.6 %, below the regional forecast of 2.2 %–2.3 %. The organization links higher productivity to reduced informal employment and calls for policies that boost productivity, expand social protection and support small enterprises.
Other countries in the region show lower informal rates: Uruguay (22.4 %), Chile (25.1 %), Costa Rica (35.5 %) and Brazil (35.6 %). Nations with informality above 60 % include El Salvador, Paraguay, Guatemala, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia.
Entities: Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía (INEGI) · International Labour Organization · Mexico
Claims
What the coverage asserts, and how well corroborated each claim is across sources.
- [○ 1 SOURCE] Mexico's informal employment rate was 52.4 % in 2026 according to the ILO. (e13a2a01-df02-4bf3-84dd-db7914d33328)