It’s May Day in Mexico City

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Thousands of Mexican workers marched to the capital’s central plaza today, an annual May 1 ritual to demand better salaries and better jobs.

They were mostly union folks, including university teachers, firefighters, government workers and truck drivers. Electrical and oil workers unions are among the most formidable here, and, by reputation, notoriously corrupt. Their main concern these days is keeping private investors from Mexico’s publicly-owned energy industry.

Unemployment figures are creeping upward for the first quarter of 2007, according to government statistics released this week. It’s tough to know with certainty, however, how many are employed. As many as half of Mexico’s workers are in the so-called informal sector, which include millions of cash-only vendors and employees.

Minimum wage is still less than $5 a day and average daily wages are about $20.

Posted by Sam Enriquez in Mexico City