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Maquiladoras en Tijuana Mexico Laborforce
Due to Tijuana's proximity to large California cities and its large, inexpensive, skilled and diverse workforce, it is an attractive city for foreign companies to establish extensive industrial parks comprised of 'assembly plants' or maquiladoras, even more so than other cities in the US-Mexican border zone, taking advantage of NAFTA to export products. At its peak, in 2001 Tijuana had roughly 820 of these 'maquiladoras' (today the number is closer to 550).
Foreign and domestic companies employ thousands in these plants, usually in assembly related labor. Such jobs are demanding and ill-paid by US standards, but yet high pay for Mexico, as the nominal GDP per capita is above the national average at about $9000 per year, third only to Cancún and Mexico City (source: INEGI).
This makes Tijuana a popular city for poor migrant workers from other parts of Mexico, as well as other countries to the south, and very profitable trafficking of drugs, people, and other goods across the border. Not withstanding, there are some high-tech firms and telemarketing companies that pay better than average making their way into the city, and many skilled people with technical trades and college degrees are making their way to the city to find work in the growing but less established economic sectors.
Binational economic development along the US-Mexico border is key to the development of Tijuana going forward. Multiple regional (San Diego-US/Tijuana-MX) think-tanks exist on both sides of the border that promote such regional collaboration and innovation.
Mexico Travel December 19, 2006 04:28 PM | Walk to Tijuana Mexico Day Trip