La Jornada: Susana González G.
Translated by Kevin Chao
At the close of the first quarter of 2013 almost 50,000 jobs in education had been lost, including teachers, administrative staff and maintenance staff, since the same time last year.
January’s National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE) reveals that 1,823,800 Mexicans working in the educational sector were counted in this period.
At the same time last year, however, these workers totaled 1,873,741. That is to say, in just one year the number dropped by 49,941, or 2.6%, according to the National Institute for Statistics and Geography’s ENOE.
Compared to last December, when President Enrique Peña Nieto came into power, there has been a loss of 24,719 jobs, down from 1,848,519, implying a decrease of 1.33%.
Six of every ten of these workers are women, and 56% of the total between 30 and 49 years old, but there are another 79,000 over 60 and 16,000 between 14 and 19, in addition to 312,900 between 50 and 59.
Unlike in other sectors, most education sector employees have access to health institutions: 82% in total. Similarly, 96% of them do not seek other employment, and those who do total only 64,218.
The ENOE explains that most of these workers make three to five times the minimum wage, or from 194 to 323 pesos [US$15.54 to US$25.87] a day, or from 5,831 to 9,718 pesos [US$466.99 to US$778.30] a month. About 40% of workers in this sector, or 728,694 workers total, make this much.
Another 367,000 receive over five times the minimum wage. 58,000 receive the minimum wage and 148,000 recieve twice the minimum wage, 212,000 receive between one and two minimum wages and 4,286 report that they are paid nothing at all.
37% of the workers began work before 2000, but there are 50,000 that had begun as recently as the first quarter of 2013.
The year in this century with the most hirings in education was 2012 with 168,325 cases, followed by 2010 with 144,439 new workers, and 2009 with 106,033. On the other hand, less than 100,000 started working in education each year between 2000 and 2008. In 2001, there were only 27,998 new employees and while in 2008, there were 94,059. Spanish original