Domestic workers recover employment level prior to the pandemic

In November, more than 2.4 million Household employees they had work. That means the labor force that takes care of people, cleans their houses, prepares their food, and has their clothes clean so that the rest of the economy works. he regained his level of employment prior to the covid-19 pandemic.

The latest results of the National Occupation and Employment Survey (ENOE) indicate that once again women are taking more positions in this sector. In July 2020, the unemployment rate for female workers in private homes reached 32%, far exceeding general unemployment.

In March 2020, before the pandemic hit the job market, there were just over 2,390,000 people working from home. By July of that year, only 1.6 million retained their position. Thousands were fired without liquidation, as documented by the National Union of Domestic Workers (Sinactraho).

Almost three years later, the ENOE returns to report more than 2.4 million jobs occupied in this sector. In this period, domestic workers in Mexico won rights that had been denied them, such as mandatory social security. However, less than 2% of them are registered with the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS).

Globally, only 6% in this sector have access to full social protection, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO).

They’re still in charge, that doesn’t change

Of the more than 2.1 million people employed in this activity in November 2021, almost 200,000 were men and more than 1.9 million women. But in November of this year there are fewer active workers (174,000), and more women hired (plus 2.2 million).

In other words, the trend observed at the beginning of the pandemic, when women were fired in homes and more men were hired, has been reversed.

Let’s go back to July 2020: almost 720,000 domestic workers lost their jobs. However, the annual employment rate for men in these activities grew 7 percent.

The confinement to stop the contagion left millions of people unemployed, mainly those who already suffered the violation of their labor human rights, such as women. But particularly, women domestic workers.

The data from the ENOE account for the above. In July 2020, 15% of women who had a job a year before were unemployed from their paid activity. 10% of the men were in the same situation.

In a context in which the country is at its lowest unemployment level for 15 years, with a rate of 2.8%, in the annual comparison there are 905,000 more employed men than in November 2021 and 1.5 million more women than in the same comparison period.

As more women have returned to work in different sectors, domestic workers have returned to the homes of those other workers to take care of domestic chores. Gender roles and the sexual division of labor still stand.

In 2021, the economic value of unpaid household and care work was more than 6.8 trillion pesosaccording to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi). While women contributed 73% and men, 27 percent of that figure.

In paid domestic work, men are hired primarily as drivers and secondarily as watchmen or porters. There is also a difference in economic perceptions, since 47% of women earn a minimum wage and only 27% of men are paid that minimum amount.