Specifically in March 2024, some 74,250 workers in the formal private sector were counted in the province of Chaco in the seasonally adjusted series. This is the lowest volume of formal private employment since February 2022, that is, in the last twenty-five months. Compared to the previous month (February 2024), there is a decrease of 1.2%, equivalent to the loss of 883 jobs. It is also the eleventh consecutive decrease in this indicator at that comparative level.
The drop in March aggravates a process of deterioration in Chaco’s formal private employment that began in May 2023 and continued to systematically show declines at different speeds.
Specifically, with regard to the year 2024, January registered a decrease of 1.3% (-1,004 jobs); February -0.8% (-635 jobs) and finally March -1.2% (-883 jobs). If this analysis is extended to December 2023 (where employment fell 1.1% in Chaco) it can be concluded that, during the Milei presidency, Chaco has already lost 3,355 formal jobs in the private sector.
For its part, the year-on-year comparison shows a decline of 8.2% for Chaco, the deepest since the measurement series for this indicator began (which began in January 2009). Therefore, it is the sharpest drop in at least the last 15 years. That is, at this comparative level, the drop was greater even than the hardest months of the pandemic. In absolute values, this fall represents the loss of 6,616 jobs compared to March 2023.
At the regional level, Chaco remains in third place in volume of the formal private labor market, concentrating 26.4% of the regional total. In March 2024, it registered the second largest monthly drop in the region, only lower than that of Formosa (-1.6%) and higher than the drop in Corrientes (-0.1%). Misiones, for its part, was the only NEA province with increases (+2.7%) and was also the most important in the country.
Situation of private employment registered at the national level
In March, formal private employment showed a decrease of 0.4% in the national total, being the seventh consecutive month of declines. This noted drop is equivalent to the loss of 23,012 formal private jobs throughout the country during that month; and was particularly driven by the Construction (-2.6%), Fishing (-1.2%), Agriculture and Livestock (-0.5%) and Manufacturing Industry (-0.4%) sectors.
In the year-on-year comparison, the total country showed a decrease of 1.1% (-69,871 jobs compared to March 2023) with Construction as the activity with the main drop (-18.3%).
Performance of subnational jurisdictions
In March, only 4 of the 24 subnational jurisdictions observed increases in the monthly comparison: Misiones (2.7%), Neuquén (0.6%), Río Negro (0.3%) and Salta (0.1%); On the contrary, the remaining twenty jurisdictions presented monthly decreases of different magnitudes: among them, the slightest was seen in Tucumán and Corrientes (-0.1% in each case) and the strongest, for the second consecutive month, in La Rioja (-4.8%).
