“The worst year of my life was 2020. What if I lost something? I lost my father, my job, my emotional stability and I was also infected with the virus”, are the statements of Alan Murillo, resident of Mexico City , one of the thousands of people that the Covid took from them practically everything, in which the testimonies are uphill and are of resistance.
In April 2020, 46-year-old Alan joined the ranks of unemployment: “I am an executive driver-escort, I worked for two companies, and in an Uber, but the pandemic arrived and foreigners stopped coming on business trips, I they fired the two companies, transfers went down a lot with the red traffic light ”, he commented.
According to the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS), from March to July, after the arrival of the pandemic, one million 10 thousand formal jobs were lost throughout the country. By May, Ángel Murillo, Alan’s father, 84, was defeated by the virus, five months later, his mother also died on New Year’s Eve from a cardiorespiratory arrest, which led him to contract debts that have become unpayable. in the midst of the need to support his two children and wife.
“I lost my three jobs, it was a physical, mental, emotional and economic expense, we sold things, we pawned, we borrowed, each vial of a treatment for my father cost 25 thousand pesos, the family was fractured, in December 2020 it also gave me the Covid, I was delicate and to date I am still without work, with sequels, I have unpayable debts and a mortgage, at any time they can seize my house, “he said.
According to the New Edition National Occupation and Employment Survey, published on February 15 by Inegi, the economically active population fell from 57.6 million to 55.9, compared to 2019; that is, 1.7 million unemployed, with more than 769 thousand workers in the informal sector.
Only in the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico, between March and May 2020, 13,500 establishments closed, and there are estimates from the National Chamber of the Restaurant Industry (Canirac) that as of December 2020, eight out of 10 businesses were to breaking point.
“I worked cleaning a bar in Mexicali, in April my husband died from the coronavirus and in May they fired me because the place was going to go bankrupt, now I sell used clothes, food, I do what I can because I was left alone with four children”, 38-year-old Diana Sánchez confided.
Many of the unemployed in the formal sector laid down their Afores; At the end of 2020, partial unemployment retirements reached the historical maximum of 20 thousand 60 million pesos, which represents an increase of 61.3 percent compared to 2019.
Moonart, a Mexican footwear company, created in 2017, was just beginning to generate profits when the virus arrived.
“We started with 15 people and we continue like this, we decided not to run to anyone at the cost of not making a profit, the pandemic stopped us almost completely, despite this, both bosses and employees helped each other, some held us with the payments so that we could support others who got sick. Now we are recovering sales ”, explained Marina Perrusquía, executive director of the company.
As of August the federal authorities began to highlight figures of the economic recovery; the affected establishments began to open and according to the STPS, from August to January more than 600 thousand places have been recovered.
“The impact was the deepest since the economic recession of 1932, we had a drop of 8.5 percent, there was the biggest setback in 20 years; The recovery, in terms of GDP per capita, will take us at least between five and six years, ”said José Luis de la Cruz in an economist interview.
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