In June, the employment figures in Jalisco were disappointing: the Mexican state lost 2,300 jobs, after coming from a good run.
The coordinator of the Jalisco Economic Growth and Development cabinet Alejandro Guzmán Larralde minimized the situation. He explained that they were temporary farming jobs. However, the Tapatios lost their punch in 2018. In that year, the entity generated 43 K formal jobs, the lowest figure since 2012.
Jalisco is still the Mexican state that generates more jobs in the country, despite recent results. In the first four months of 2019, companies registered 37,713 new formal posts with the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS). Nevertheless, if the state wants to maintain this position, it requires a new push. The electronics industry is giving that push.
In 2019, foreign investment has invested $312 M in the Jalisco electronics industry. This economic spill will result in 5K new jobs, according to Dina Grijalva Varillas, president in the West of the National Chamber of the Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Technology Industry (Canieti).
“These jobs are in the two main pillars that are the electronic sector and that of Information Technology. Currently, we are generating 122 thousand jobs for the state in the high-tech industry,” said Grijalva.
The electronics industry drives exports, in addition to jobs. In 2018, six out of every ten exports in the state came from this sector. In 2018, the value of exports in this industry exceeded $20 B. According to Grijalva, this year the electronics industry will have a growth higher than the state’s economic expectation for 2019, priced between 3% and 3.5% of the state Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“There will be an investment in manufacturing plants, new equipment, many of the new jobs are in software development and programming, and others are in electronic manufacturing. More than half are high-level jobs,” said Ernesto Sánchez Proal, Secretary of Economic Development.
Jalisco brings Silicon Valley to Mexico
Jalisco has promoted Guadalajara for several years as the Mexican Silicon Valley. The new administration of Governor Enrique Alfaro maintains these efforts with a recent tour to California in February 2019.
At that time, the media questioned the governor about the purpose of the tour. However, some of the new investments attracted are the product of this trip, such as the $ 20 M investment that Jabil will make in Guadalajara to manufacture GoPro cameras.
The state also requires the talent that companies need to continue attracting investments. The Jalisco government agencies reported that they are operating projects to train children and young people in new technologies. One thousand two hundred teachers also received training so they could pass on their knowledge to elementary school students.
The education state projects include the remodeling of five schools in the Mario Molina Institute of Technology campus network and the activation of an open university education platform that will be available in September and will be at the Digital University, located in Ciudad Creativa Digital (CCD).
Currently, the electronics industry in Mexico requires 100 K qualified engineers with English language proficiency and who know programming languages such as Java, according to the nationwide president of Canieti, Carlos Funes Garay. These figures force the state to invest in education.