MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Unemployment in Argentina during the third quarter remains at two digits

Indec reported that Argentina's GDP grew 12,8% in the third quarter from the previous quarter but overall the economy contracted 10,2% from a year earlier.

The unemployment rate in Argentina fell in the third quarter from the previous three months as an economic activity seems to be tepidly recovering. The rate fell to 11,7% at the end of September compared to 13,1% in the second quarter, according to the country's stats office, Indec.

However the figures are not conclusive since it is estimated that some 1,4 million jobs were lost during the pandemic, and the rate should be above 13%, because the survey covers 31 cities. Likewise in Argentina it is estimated that the number of under or self employed is far higher that formal jobs and difficult to measure.

On Wednesday Indec reported that the country's GDP grew 12,8% in the third quarter from the previous quarter but overall the economy contracted 10,2% from a year earlier. Argentina was already in recession before the pandemic started and was suffering of stagnation since 2012, following the end of the commodities boom and the subprime recession.

“You'll see positive economic growth, but nothing spectacular,” said Alberto Ramos, an economist at Goldman Sachs. “That's the easy growth, the catch-up growth that happens almost automatically.”

Argentina's active population, which is the number of people working plus the number of people looking for work, rose to 12.07 million in the third quarter from 10.98 million in the previous three months, while the number of people employed rose to 10.66 million from 9.55 million over the same period, according to Indec. The number of people seeking work declined to 1.42 million from 1.44 million.

The active population declined sharply in the second quarter from 13.44 million in the first quarter as many people abandoned the labor market at the start of the pandemic. The number of people with jobs, though higher in the third quarter than in the second, is still below the 12.05 million people employed in the first quarter.