Las industrias automotriz y textil en México: comercio y trabajo decente

The study examines the effects of trade liberalization on employment and the labor market in Mexico’s manufacturing industry. The analysis places special emphasis on assessing the extent to which the industry’s distinct trade performance is accompanied by an improvement in labor conditions to ensure decent work. For this purpose, the study applies the framework of decent work indicators developed by the International Labour Organization (ILO), in combination with input-output analysis, to explore selected links between international trade and certain indicators of decent work in two industries of Mexico’s manufacturing sector: automotive and textile. We chose these two industries because of the key differences in their organizational structures, their roles in global value chains (GVC), and their dynamism in recent decades. A key contribution of the study was to construct a set of relevant time series indicators of decent work for these two industrial activities in Mexico, based on ILO guidelines and official data. This study is the first one to build indicators of decent work at the industry level in Mexico. It finds important differences in these two industries’ advances towards decent work, which can be partly explained by their distinct performances in international trade. Based on these results, the study offers some policy recommendations to help achieve a more robust pace of progress towards decent work.