MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguay's Labor Minister joining electoral exodus next month

March is usually better than February and January, Mieres explained

Uruguay's Labor Minister Pablo Mieres will leave his position effective May 2 to focus on his presidential bid from within the Independent Party, for which he needs to overcome the June 30 primary elections in which he is the sole contender. He will be replaced by President Luis Lacalle Pou's fellow White Mario Arizti, who currently serves as Labor Undersecretary. Mieres has been on the job since the beginning of the Multicolor administration in early 2020.

Mieres announced his decision Wednesday in Montevideo during an event hosted by the Búsqueda Weekly. With his departure, Mieres will become the last member of Lacalle's original cabinet to depart from their job following similar steps undertaken by former Presidential Secretary Álvaro Delgado, and former Tourism Minister Tabaré Viera who also intend to vie for the top spot at the Torre Ejecutiva representing the ruling Multicolor coalition.

In one of his last appearances as Labor Minister, Mieres announced earlier this week that Uruguay's current employment rate stood at “very good levels” in “quantity” and “quality,” with 42,988 collecting unemployment insurance in March, which represented a 5.6% contraction (or 2,527 fewer people) from the previous month and a 3.7% year-on-year decline.

“March is a month that in general is always better than February and January, but that is why it is good to compare it with March 2023, where we have fewer workers than a year ago”, he pointed out.

Employment grew by 1.3% y-o-y in February and stood at 58.9% of the population, with more than 1,725,000 people employed, according to Uruguay's National Statistics Institute (INE). These figures meant about 47,000 more registered workers than in the same month of 2023.

Compared to pre-pandemic data from February 2020, Uruguay has about 104,000 more employed people, while the employment rate went from 56.4% to 58.9%.