Workers Falling Behind in Mexico

In Mexico, there are too many workers and too few jobs. The country has failed to recover from the financial crisis of the 1990s that sent the peso and the average standard of living plummeting. And, while the number of unskilled laborers remains high – indeed higher than ever before as women increasingly enter the workforce – lower wages in countries like Indonesia and Guatemala have lured companies away. "Mexico faces a difficult dilemma," one government official said. "On the one side there is social justice and the need to provide human beings with what they need. On the other side is the logic of the market. If companies are not competitive, they close. The problem is how to balance these factors." Unless wages fall further, returning companies are unlikely to restore this balance. Rather, most analysts maintain that Mexico will need to re-position itself in the global economy as a source of better-paid, higher-skilled labor. Without sufficient funding for education and better infrastructure linking Mexico to the United States, however, applying this strategy may prove easier said than done. – YaleGlobal