Cooperation displayed between the city and the region’s principal economic players results in robust growth for Tijuana maquiladoras.

Tijuana maquiladoras have significantly more than recovered the manufacturing jobs lost during the great recession, which began in 2008. According to a recent report published by Mexico’s Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática (INEGI), or the Mexican government’s official source of statistical information, the number of workers now employed in Tijuana maquiladoras currently stands at 193,328. This figure exceeds the total positions that were existent in the border city’s export industry factories prior to the great recession by 20%. At present Tijuana maquiladora growth represents eight out of ten new manufacturing positions created in the state.

Additionally, recently made available information from a study contracted for by the Tijuana Economic Development Corporation and conducted by the local consultancy, Ruiz Morales, has evidenced that during the first half of 2015, seventeen additional manufacturers have been added to the total number of Tijuana maquiladoras. In addition to this finding, Ruiz Morales also discovered that the region’s turnover rate is a respectable 2.6% per month. This is an indicator of the stability of the manufacturing sector in both Tijuana and the State of Baja California.

Although Baja California economic development officials and personnel view the state as a “Mega Region” that includes other municipalities such as the capital of Baja California, Mexicali, as well as the municipalities of Tecate and Rosarito, those communities lag behind in manufacturing job creation when compared to the activity that has been taking place in relation to Tijuana maquiladoras. Mexicali is second in the State of Baja California in the generation of jobs in industry with a total of 56,303, while Tecate comes in a distant third place with 10,855 workers on the plant floors of its manufacturing facilities.

According to the Centro de Estudios de Tijuana para el Sector Privado, or the Tijuana Center for Economic Studies for the Private Sector, much of the success that Tijuana has had in recovering and adding to the jobs lost as a result of the great recession of 2008 is attributable to the collaborative work that has been carried out by groups such as the local INDEX chapter, which is the representative organization of Tijuana maquiladoras on a national level, and both local and state economic development agencies. The Tijuana Center for Economic Studies for the Private Sector has been recently formed to augment data made available about Tijuana and the region with hard data related to employment, foreign direct and domestic investment and industrial space availability in Tijuana, as well as throughout the State of Baja California.