Joblessness

Rogelio Ramírez de la O expresses uncertainty about the world economy's recovery, and highlights some problems specific to Mexico:

Mexico has an almost fine line to walk, now that it has let a recession come to harm the structure. Today the structure of the public finances is as damaged as the social structure.

Because the government likewise had no success in designing truly structural reforms that assure higher rates of growth and employment (which must be the test of whether reforms are good or not), the only practical thing today is to concentrate on a few contextual issues. Among these, unemployment is the most worrying.

If it continues to rise, the losses that have already registered 710,000 jobs in six months, without including the informal sector and available non-assets (which also rose), will have the capacity to further damage the economic structure, causing business bankruptcies and losses to financial entities that lent to today's unemployed. And social tension will increase, scaring off investments.

Maybe, if the government reorders its ideas, examines the instruments it has at its disposal, and takes effective action, it can manage to reduce unemployment.