The steel industry in Mexico registered the fifth consecutive labor record in May, now with 143,094 workers, 6.2 percent or 8,297 more workers compared to the same month in 2022, according to a SteelOrbis analysis of official data.
In the last 12 months, to May 2023, new labor record levels were registered 10 times, according to formal employment data (registers in the IMSS social security institute) in the Basic Metal Industries, which according to the classifier of the national agency of Inegi statistics, corresponds to the steel industry.
In May, the largest steel economy in Mexico, by number of jobs, was Nuevo Leon with 28,511 workers (19.9 percent of the total), followed by Coahuila with 19,873 workers (13.9 percent of the total), Estado de Mexico with 12,944 workers (9.0 percent), Guanajuato with 12,007 workers (8.4 percent) and Veracruz with 11,427 workers (8.0 percent of the total). Together these five states concentrate 59.2 percent of the 143,294 employed workers in the country.
Steel employment in Nuevo León broke the trend of new employment records recorded in the first four months of the year. In May it employed 28,511 workers, 8.3 percent or 2,175 more jobs compared to the same month last year.
With the new employment record for the steel industry, its participation in manufacturing employment represented 2.4 percent of the total (6.05 million workers) and 0.65 percent of total formal employment in Mexico (21.86 million workers) in May.