MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentines pessimistic about jobs, household income and mid-term prospects

An overwhelming majority of interviews, 75%, expect their personal income situation to be worse or at the most the same

A pessimistic mood has taken over in Argentina, according to a recent public opinion poll and report on jobs, household income, and mid-term prospects, according to the latest economic expectations index, IGEE from the Catholic University supported by pollster TNS-Gallup.

 In effect, 75% of those interviewed said that in the coming twelve months their personal economic situation will be the same or worse, while 53% believe that there are not enough available jobs and for one in three in the next six months there are no improvement prospects, rather the contrary. More than half the families, 55% anticipate their income will freeze in the coming six months and only 13% believe in a recovery. Three in ten (27%) are expecting a further downfall.

Overall in the next six months the current situation in Argentina is “bad or quite bad” according to 53% of interviews while for 41% things will get worse.

The poll shows expectations dropped in all of this year's measurements and ended March with 18 percentage points below a year ago. The most significant was in the opportunity to buy home appliances, which was down 25% because of price increases, inflation, currency devaluation and less installments, promotions and financing.

Regarding employment comparing March this year with 2013, the number of people who believed there was an abundance of available jobs virtually fell to half from 21% to 12%.

In October 2011 when Argentina was flooded in optimism and president Cristina Fernandez was re-elected by a historic majority and almost forty points ahead of the runner up, one in three Argentines, 36% believed there was availability of jobs. That optimism had dropped to a third.

When Cristina Fernandez re-election six out of a hundred families believed that the household income could drop in the following six months. Now that figure is 4.5 times higher despite all the government announcements in support of teenagers who don't study or work.

The UCA-TNS-Gallup poll interviewed 1.015 people over 18 and covered the whole Argentine territory.

The Argentine government stats office Indec has in effect revealed a significant drop in car manufacturing and work suspension in several plants, plus a strong fall in the construction industry.