Emerging Industries will Require a Trained Mexican Workforce

As Mexico Mexico’s industrial base continues to grow and develop, finding the appropriate individuals to fill increasingly demanding and numerous positions will become more of a challenge. This is particularly true in sectors that are gaining momentum in Mexico.  More specifically, medical device, energy, aerospace, and telecommunications companies will have to increase and improve their talent acquisition capabilities in order to access trained employees.  The country will have to make growing a workforce with the ability to capitalize on future job requirements and challenges the Mexican workforce a priority.   It is prognosticated that, in the coming years, the Mexico will be in need of approximately 500,000 trained workers.

According to Hays, a global talent acquisition form, among the posts that industries in new jobs in the Mexican workforce will be numerous in the following areas:

• Engineering plant managers
• HR generalists
• Sales managers/directors
• Quality managers
• Senior managers

Four growing industries: Energy, Telecommunications, Medical Devices, and Aerospace.

The provision of energy is one of the areas in Mexico that will grow at a healthy pace. The industry was opened to private investment in 2013, after mostly in government hands since 1930.   Deregulation resulted in the lifting of strict federal government power over the gas, electricity, and oil sectors. Recently, these activities have become the recipients of both private foreign direct and private investment.  There is a hope that the opening of the energy industry to outside investment will attract the trained Mexican workforce required to fully exploit the country’s deep-water and shale oil deposits.

Another Mexican industry that is thriving is telecommunications.  This is, in great part, because in 2014 the government of Mexico undertook significant reforms in the sector. Over the course of that year, the Federal Telecommunications Institute (IFT) took measures to stimulate and create competition in what was an industry characterized by monopoly.  Due to these reforms, in 2016 the IFT reported that telecommunications industry enjoyed growth of 8.5%.  This rate of expansion was the highest among all sectors of the of Mexico’s economy. Importantly, the telecom sector growth was more than three times higher than that of the Mexican economy in its entirety.  The Mexican gross domestic product (GDP) grew at a rate of two and one-half percent in 2016.

More jobs for the Mexican workforce in the Mexican telecommunications industry will materialize for as a result of massive investment that has recently been made in the sector. According to the Federal Telecommunications Institute in excess of thirteen billion US dollars has poured into the industry over the last three years.  Government sources project that the sector will gain another $US 7 billion to further build the Mexico’s telecom network.  This growth will require a trained  Mexican workforce with the skills that the modern telecommunication industry demands.

In addition to the telecommunications and energy industries in Mexico, another sector of future growth will take place in the medical device manufacturing industry.  Today, the country is host to some of the sector’s most well-known names.  Among the firms with a strong presence in Mexico are  Becton Dickinson,  Johnson & Johnson, Cardinal Healthcare, Stryker,  Tyco, Siemens, GE, Medtronic, Boston Scientific, Kimberly Clark and others. Mexico has this impressive amount of activity in the medical device sector due to the fact that, over the years, its workforce has become increasingly better trained and has become increasingly adept at producing these sophisticated products.  A combination of factors such as its workforce and its preferential access to the world’s largest market will be what propels the industry’s future growth. According to Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI), the value of Mexican production of medical devices is projected to be over US$ 15 billion by 2020.  As is the case with both the telecommunication industry and energy, healthy growth in the medical devices industry will require greater numbers of the Mexican workforce.

Aerospace is the fourth of the country’s industries to have benefited from a high rate of growth over the last decade.  Although the aerospace industry is relatively new to Mexico, it has impressive clusters of production in places like Baja California, the western state of Sonora, and the state of Queretaro, in recent years, the Mexican government has initiated a number programs to create aerospace employment opportunities for the Mexican workforce.  These include workforce training programs, business incentives, and the founding of universities and technical institutes to support the industry’s growth.  The aerospace industry is an excellent example of foreign investment attraction, growth, and job creation.  Beyond employing 63,000 in 2016, the aerospace industry in Mexico logged an average yearly growth in exports of 20% over the years 2013-2015.  As one of the industries in Mexico that is experiencing significant levels of growth, the aerospace industry will increasingly more trained individuals in the Mexican workforce.

We recommend reviewing our Blog at Tecma.com for continuing information on this subject.