Mexico | Labor poverty resumes downward trend, standing at 34.3% in 2025-Q3

Summary

Labor poverty measures, in the short term, the relationship between household labor income and the cost of the food basket, that is, their purchasing power. An increase in labor income would improve a household’s economic situation, while an increase in the cost of the food basket would worsen it.

Key points

• Key points:
• In the third quarter of 2025, 34.3% of Mexico’s population lived in a household in a condition of labor poverty. This represents a reduction of 0.8 percentage points (pp), both compared with the previous quarter and on an annual basis.
• In Q3 2025, labor poverty decreased in both urban and rural areas. In urban areas, 30.2% of the population was affected, while in rural areas the figure was 48.4%.
• After the increase in labor poverty observed nationwide during Q2 2025, the indicator regained the downward trend seen over the last four years.
• As of Q3 2025, 13 states were above the national average for labor poverty. The most notable cases were Chiapas with 61.1% of its population, followed by Oaxaca (58.1%), Guerrero (52.3%), Veracruz (49.9%), and San Luis Potosí (43.5%).
• Compared with the previous quarter, Durango stands out as the state with the largest increase in its population living in labor poverty (+3.9 pp), while Querétaro shows the largest reduction (-6.4 pp). On a year-over-year basis, San Luis Potosí recorded the largest increase (+5.5 pp), while Tlaxcala registered the largest decline (-5.6 pp).

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