MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Jobless in Argentina down, but unions think differently

Unemployment in Argentina dropped 0.2 points in the third quarter of this year and stood at 7.8%, President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner revealed this week during a visit to a factory in Buenos Aires province

The slight drop in unemployment is the direct result of the "new jobs in the domestic markets and growing consumption" the President said. She urged businessmen to hire new workers in order to "generate consumers for their own products". The latest figure was provided by Argentina's Statistics and Census Office, INDEC, which has been repeatedly criticized by the opposition and private economists for allegedly underreporting inflation to favour the government. Unemployment dropped slightly but the same number of people is economically active, according to INDEC. Mrs. Kirchner, who is scheduled to attend the G20 summit in Washington next week, said she is confident that local businesses will overcome the difficulties faced by economies the world over. There are currently fears that industrialized nations will face the first joint recession since the Second World War next year. "Combining the domestic market with exports is the key to strengthen the country's growth" insisted the Argentine president. But the pro-government trade union movement is voicing concern that Argentina will face an employment crisis because many companies are foreign-owned. The General Labour Confederation said it will ask to meet the President to demand "true policies" to prevent a possible wave of dismissals. The pro-government CGT, which is headed by teamster Hugo Moyano, said it is concerned about the loss of jobs, especially in the industrial sector. "Dismissals, suspensions and the cancellation of overtime hours are already taking place," union leaders said. CGT leaders reportedly are meeting to study the situation amid speculation that they could urge the government to reinstate double severance pay for dismissals. The double severance was introduced immediately after the financial crisis of 2001 and was in place until it was abolished by then president Néstor Kirchner in August 2007 due to sustained economic growth. Meanwhile, a report released this week by ratings company Moody's, said Argentina is the worst destination for investments in Latin America, along with Bolivia and Ecuador. Argentina's bad review follows a similar report unveiled last week by Standard and Poor's, which downgraded Argentina from a B to a B-minus category, six levels below investment grade. Moody's report, which analyzed the development in Latin American, said the slowdown of economies in the region was due to their dependency on commodities exports. (BAH).-