The Industrial Union of San Juan together with the Professional Council of Economic Sciences prepared the first report of the Economic Observatory, where they surveyed 71 local industrialists to find out their reality. From this data, challenges in the sector emerge and also an updated photo of how they are doing. Entrepreneurs detected four main problems that prevent them from growing, both in capacity and jobs. These are related to the economy and are inflation, inflexible labor laws, import restrictions and the exchange rate. But they also encountered another problem in the cases of companies that have the possibility of adding workers: they do not find trained personnel with the skills they require.
The report resulting from the survey will be presented today by the authorities of the local Industrial Union, but DIARIO DE CUYO had advance access to the data. The president of the institution, Ricardo Palacios, confirmed that this is the first document, but that they hope to have updated data on a monthly and quarterly basis. One of the ideas is that the data allows them to “generate actions for the medium and long term and not work only on the current situation, because it is impossible to manage if we do not have accurate and real statistical data.” The information could be useful, he exemplified, to be able to speak with the institutions in charge of training workers so that they generate the skills that the sector needs.
Among the multiple data revealed by the statistical work is that one of the challenges that industrialists have when hiring personnel is low qualifications, the problem presented by 40.8% of those surveyed. In second place was the “other” category, which responds to specific needs of each company, and in third place was the low experience of the candidates, with 14.1%. Palacios explained that the union welcomes specific courses, such as welding, but in order to direct these efforts they also asked what workers the sector wants. From this it was deduced that 28% are looking for personnel with specific technical skills and, in second place with 16.9%, interpersonal skills. “Many times people are required who can lead teams or sales,” he exemplified.
The report details that today there are 6,253 people working in the industrial sector and according to Palacios there are still unfilled positions, which have to do with specific skills that a company requires. But also, the total decreased between last year and today. They estimate that there was a 2% drop in occupancy year-on-year, without taking into account seasonal variations. This has a lot to do with the economic recession and the fact that in the San Juan industry 86% of companies focus largely on the domestic market. In the diagram that shows which are the items that cover the most, this orientation towards local consumption can be seen: the first four items in number of members are food and beverages (14%), consulting (7.04%), plastic manufacturing (5 .63%) and mining services (5.63%).
For Palacios, today the situation of the industry is not easy and they are going through a strong crisis that has to do with the economic problems that the Argentine economy is going through. 37.1% of businessmen stated that the most serious problem they have is inflation, 27.9% indicated that labor laws negatively affect them, 23.6% blamed the limitation of imports and finally there was 11.4% who referred to the exchange rate. The businessman and leader explained that today they do not see “any industrial policy designed to resolve the crises that Argentine SMEs have been going through for so long.”
He also criticized the way in which the debate on the Bases Law is taking place. “There are points that we had been working on, with the UIA and unions, but in our view, important points ended up being mixed, such as the modification of the labor law,” he explained. In addition, he said that inflation continues to be a scourge for the sector and referred to the fact that “the tax matrix is unbearable and makes the national industry stop being competitive.” If these problems are solved, he assured, there may be growth possibilities for the local sector.
75.4 percent of the industries surveyed are classified as small and micro businesses.
29% of companies have high or very high electricity consumption and only 19.8% say the same about gas.
65.02 percent of workers in the industry are men, compared to 34.98% women.
49.21 percent of companies use their own funds to finance themselves and only 25% access
to bank lines.
