Labor pool & population
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  1. Guadalaja- labor pool Guadalajara , city, capital of Jalisco state, is the second largest city of Mexico. The metropolitan area includes close to 3 million people.
  2. Although the official metro area only covers these municipalities, the city continues to expand into the outlying area. When the El Salto municipality is taken into account, the metro area population jumps to over 4 million individuals. While the overall population is growing at an average rate of 1.8%, the rate varies depending on the different regions of the metro area. The municipality of Zapopan, for instance, experienced a 3.49% annual growth during the 1990-2000 period, contrasting with the municipality of Guadalajara that posted a negative rate of -0.02 % during the same period.
  1. Known as the Mexican Silicon Valley, Guadalajara has a large concentration of computer and electronic companies.
  2. - The geographic proximity to the US and similar time-zone
  3. - The city can leverage its Spanish language proficiency to provide contact center services in Spanish
  4. - The talent pool in the city is also suitable for providing outsourced software and engineering design services
  5. - The city has a well-developed infrastructure of quality office space, technology parks and transport system
  6. - The city’s government, industry and academia collaborate on various sector strategies and technological research
  7. - The state government of Jalisco has targeted improvements in administrative processes resulting in reduced time taken to set up a business in the state.




  1. Skilled Labor Force
  3. Similarly to the rest of Mexico, Guadalajara is home to an extremely young population with 42.4% of its inhabitants being 19 years old or younger.
  4. Guadalajara is a center for education in Jalisco. Prominent educational institutes in the city include Universidad Panamericana, ITESO, Universidad de Guadalajara, Monterrey Institute of Technology (ITESM) and the Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara.
  5. The city has good availabity of trained technical and engineering talent. Guadalajara is ranked high for availability of skilled labor in Mexico, especially for electronics and technology.
  6. Guadalajara has a stable workforce and lower attrition rates compared to larger cities in Mexico.
  7. Guadalajara has a young, educated population that has a 92% literacy rate, on line with the 90.5% national average for Mexico. Its workforce has developed a high level of competency and reputation in several industries including electronics manufacturing, textiles, footwear and apparel. Moreover, Guadalajara has one of the highest skill rankings in Mexico for electronics production as well as for computer manufacturing.




  1. Labor and Employment
  2. Small and medium sized companies employ over 64% of Guadalajara’s workforce, though the number of large manufacturing facilities has been steadily increasing. While most of Guadalajara’s employment is in the farming and commercial sectors, over 60,000 people worked in the electronics industry at its peak in the late 1990’s.
  3. It is estimated that about 59.3% of the population over 12 years old in Guadalajara is economically active, though there is a big difference between the percentage of men and women that participate in productive activities: 76.8% of men over 12 years old are economically active while only 43.2% of women are.

  1. Education & Talent
  2. Higher education and training in advanced technology is an element that can only be found in truly developed knowledge ecosystems.
  3. Guadalajara's metropolitan area encompasses over 20 universities with high tech and IT courses graduating more than 6,500 engineers per year. Local research centers collaborate directly with the private sector, creating PhD programs for applied research which are supported with government funds.
  4. Government, academy and industry collaboration is one of Guadalajara's main strengths and is why the cluster has evolved into a high tech ecosystem. The advancement of curricula and technical programs in accordance with the changing requirements of the high tech industry is a main priority in the region.
  5. Although the support for technology education programs has been traditionally low in Latin American countries, Guadalajara's high tech cluster has been able to avoid this trend by having the highest percentage of state GDP assigned to Science and Technology in Mexico.
  6. Foreign language and exchange training programs are introduced at early educational stages in order to enhance rapid placement in the industry's multi-cultural environments. Mexico's second largest public university is located in the region, a true incubator of talent and higher education.
  1. The talent and academic capabilities of the Guadalajara metropolitan area are not only world-class, but are also highly complemented by an intense industry-government-academy collaboration for research programs and curricula alignment. The role of the local chambers in fostering innovation and technology careers among the young is demonstrable at all levels of education.
  1. If your operations involve complex engineering and highly trained individuals, make sure to establish contact with Guadalajara's high tech cluster and experience its commitment to excellence and success.