The 5 best large, medium and small cities to work in Mexico

A competitive city it is one that generates talent, educates its population, develops the conditions for businesses to flourish and attracts more hard-working people. But, in addition, it makes talent and investment remain, said Ivania Mazari and Jesús Carrillo, from the Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (Imco).

This Tuesday, the Imco presented the Urban Competitiveness Index 2022which evaluates the structural capacities of 66 large, medium and small cities to attract and retain national and foreign investment, but also to interest working people and to stay and work there.

The cities were grouped into four categories according to the size of their population and into six levels of competitiveness, from very high to very low. Only one achieved the maximum score in labor terms and that is Juarez, Chihuahuaa town that has been talked about more due to the high number of femicides that occurred there.

The results show that the most competitive cities in salaries, employment, hours and formality, among other factors that make them more attractive for employment, they are the largest and those located in the north of the country.

Those with smaller populations tend to be moderately competitive for the market. Work market, or go to the bottom of the table, in the category of very low competitiveness. Most of them are in the center and south of the country.

Las five big cities (with more than 1 million inhabitants) that offer the best working conditions are:

1. Juarez
2. saltillo
3. Monterrey
4. Chihuahua
5. Mexicali

In this group, Monterrey It is the one with the best monthly salary for full-time jobs, with almost 11,400 pesos per month, while the national average is 8,900 pesos. but it is in Los Cabos, a medium-sized city and not in this set, the one with the best salary of all. In that destination, the salary is almost 15,000 pesos a month on average.

On the other hand, the city of Chihuahua has the smallest wage gap and in Juarezin the same entity, there are fewer people with very long working hours and there are lower rates of informality.

The Mexico’s valley, made up of Mexico City, 59 municipalities of the State of Mexico and one of Hidalgo, is not even among the 10 most attractive cities for employment. Rather, it was considered to have low average job competitiveness, and ranked 12th in its category.

The big cities worst evaluated to work son:

1. Puebla-Tlaxcala
2. cuernavaca
3. Toluca
4. León
5. Merida

Work in not very big cities

Inside of the Urban Competitiveness Index The Imco classifies cities into four groups based on their population under the following ranges:

• Of more than 1 million inhabitants
• Between 500,000 and 1 million inhabitants
• Between 250,000 and 500,000 inhabitants
• Less than 250,000 inhabitants

In the group of cities with between 500,000 and 1 million inhabitants, the best cities to work son:

1. hermosillo
2. cancun
3. culiacan
4. matamoros
5. Ensenada

However, only hermosillo y cancun They have the distinction of high competitiveness. The remaining three were qualified with a medium high level.

Meanwhile, the five cities with less job competitiveness in that same group are:

1. Tlaxcala-Apizaco
2. acapulco
3. Tuxtla Gutierrez
4. cuautla
5. oaxaca

In each of the cities, the organization analyzed 10 sub-indices, such as economy, law, environment, innovation and political system, among others.

The subscript of factor market It is the one that “measures the efficiency of the markets for factors of production, mainly labor and energy.” Evaluate and compare labor costs and productivity, locate where “workers are most productive, whose work is recognized through higher wages, and where energy costs are lower, are more attractive for talent and investment” .

Working conditions in small towns

The study was carried out by Ivania Mazari, Evaluation and Analysis coordinator, and Jesús Carrillo, director of Sustainable Economy at Imco. “With him we are evaluating how one in two Mexicans lives, since it is in the cities where talent is concentratedproductivity and also investment”, explained Mazari.

Las cities have no borders, “we do not need a passport or visa to go from municipality to municipality, we simply get on the bus, the taxi or the metrobus,” said Jesús Carrillo. Therefore, people “can have their home in one federal entity, study in another and may also work in another municipality.”

But the second classification is not the only area that includes various cities. In group three, which includes towns with between 250,000 and 500,000 inhabitants, there are also several regions represented. The best cities to work in this category are:

1. Nogales
2. Nuevo Laredo
3. Obregon City
4. Monclova-Border
5. Zacatecas-Guadalupe

Nogales It was considered by the Imco with high competitiveness, but it did not reach “very high”, as in the case of Juárez. The rest of these cities are of medium high competitiveness.

For their part, the five cities with low capacity to compete for the best talent in this classification are:

1. cardenas
2. chilpancingo
3. Salamanca
4. tapachula
5. La Piedad-Pénjamo

In the last group, with less than 250,000 inhabitants, there are only six cities. black stones It is at the top of this list, considered to be highly competitive at work. This locality has the lowest rate of informality.

Guaymas y Manzanillo, meanwhile, were classified as medium-high competitiveness. However, Manzanillo is the city where the highest average salaries of this group are paid: 8,800 pesos per month. Delicias and Tecomán are small cities with low competitiveness and San Francisco del Rincón, low.