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Unemployment in Argentina stable at 7.1%, but jobless have stopped looking for work, said Indec

Wednesday, May 20th 2015 - 03:52 UTC
Full article 14 comments
Indec said only 41.4% of the Argentine population have a job, down from 41.8% a year ago and 42.4% in the first quarter of 2011. Indec said only 41.4% of the Argentine population have a job, down from 41.8% a year ago and 42.4% in the first quarter of 2011.
When Nestor Kirchner was elected in 2003, only 37.4% of the Argentine population had a job then, while unemployment was above 17% at that moment When Nestor Kirchner was elected in 2003, only 37.4% of the Argentine population had a job then, while unemployment was above 17% at that moment
While the economically active population stands at 18 million, 2.64m have job problems; 1.28m are unemployed and 1.37m are underemployed While the economically active population stands at 18 million, 2.64m have job problems; 1.28m are unemployed and 1.37m are underemployed

Argentina's Indec stats office latest release shows that unemployment was stable in the first quarter, at 7.1% in the yearly comparison, but that is only because some of the jobless have stopped looking for work, as employment rates continued a declining trend which started in 2011.

 Indec said only 41.4% of the Argentine population have a job, down from 41.8% a year ago and 42.4% in the first quarter of 2011. Although this doesn’t affect unemployment levels, which only include people looking for a job, it points to reduced job creation.

From an economically active population of 18 million, 2.64 million have job problems, as 1.28 million are unemployed and 1.37 million are underemployed, meaning that they work less than 36 hours a week and would like to work more.

But the amount of people counted as “economically active” has been going down. The activity rate — calculated as the ratio between the workforce and total population — was set at 44.6% for the first quarter, the lowest in the whole Kirchnerite decade, down from 45.2% three months ago and 44.8% early in 2014.

In the quarterly comparison, unemployment was up 0.2 percentage points, but that figure is less significant due to seasonal variations. The first quarter is usually worse than the last one in terms of employment, as the end of the year usually offers more temporary jobs.

However employment figures still look positive when compared to the beginning of Néstor Kirchner’s administration in 2003. Indec’s report highlighted that only 37.4% of the Argentine population had a job then, while unemployment was above 17% at that moment. But analysts said numbers are now reflecting the economic stagnation of the last few years.

Underemployment was down in the yearly comparison, moving from 8.1% a year ago to 7.6% in the figures released this week. The last quarter of 2014 had shown a worrying jump in underemployment, as it went from 7.8% to 9.3% on the yearly comparison.

The Buenos Aires metropolitan area showed the highest levels of unemployment, 7.9%, up from 7.7% a year ago. The lowest unemployment levels were reported in the north east of Argentina with 2.6% in total.

Categories: Economy, Politics, Argentina.

Top Comments

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  • yankeeboy

    10% of the Arg population works in someone else's home.
    When hyperinflation kicks in (and it will) those jobs will be gone in a flash.

    May 20th, 2015 - 12:28 pm 0
  • chronic

    Indec as a source. You can certainly take a lot of comfort in the accuracy of those numbers.

    Enrique Massot: “Here It is, all the issues of a nation of forty-some million people explained in just seven words. We are all liars.”

    May 20th, 2015 - 02:57 pm 0
  • Enrique Massot

    Not bad considering the sluggish state of the world's and particularly Latin America's economy.
    It's so much so, YB inadvertently acknowledges it: ”(OK, for now it's relatively fine)...but when hyperinflation kicks in...those jobs will be gone in a flash.”
    Please, YB, refrain from from being so blunt. You have 40 million Argentines dying from fear!

    #2 Conqueror
    In the mean time we have His Excellency Minister of Truth (Conqueror) giving us his latest scoop: the Indec lies. Furthermore, all Argentines are liars, as he bluntly wrote recently. And to be clear: yes, there are Argentines who are liars and murderers. I've seen liars and criminals in many other countries too. Perhaps Minister conqueror has some statistics on the topic...but then again, he doesn't believe stats prepared by bureaucrats...oh, I'd rather give up and surrender to Conq's superior, mysterious source of knowledge.

    May 20th, 2015 - 04:58 pm 0
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