According to the report from the official statistical institute, there are 400,000 fewer employed workers in the 31 urban agglomerations surveyed by INDEC throughout Argentina.
Extrapolating the 31 agglomerations to the total population, it is estimated that 1.7 million people are currently unemployed, which would imply about 525,000 more unemployed in three months of the administration of the libertarian president, Javier Milei.
According to the report, the activity rate was, in the first quarter of 2024, at 48.0%, 0.6 pp below the previous quarter (48.6%). In the case of the employment rate, this was 44.3%, 1.5 pp less than the fourth quarter of 2023 (45.8%). For its part, the unemployment rate showed an increase of 2.0 pp this quarter (from 5.7% to 7.7%).
Within the employed population (44.3%) it was highlighted that 74.7% are salaried, but of them 35.7% do not have a retirement discount. On the other hand, 21.9% are self-employed, 3.2% are employers and 0.3% are unpaid family workers.
Employees
On the other hand, and according to data reported by INDEC, among employed employees, 4.3% used their own machinery/equipment to carry out their work. At the same time, of the total employed, 7.6% worked from home. This data, which we could relate to the home office, has been falling quarter by quarter since the post-pandemic, a sign that the return to in-person presence is increasingly firm.
Furthermore, when analyzing the employed population by educational level, more than half of the employed people (60.3%) have completed secondary school or higher, while 39.7% have completed higher education and university education (complete or incomplete).
Likewise, regarding the qualification of the main occupation, 55.1% corresponds to an operational job; 17.3% to technical qualification; 17.1% unqualified; and 10.1% to professional.
Gender and regions
Regarding the unemployment rate (7.7% of the EAP), it was highlighted that there continues to be gender inequality. While for women it is 8.4%, for men it is 7%.
Among the regions, those that showed the highest TD were Greater Buenos Aires and Pampeana, with 9.0% and 6.8%, respectively. At the same time, it stands out that the region with the lowest TD was Cuyo (4.5%).
In reference to the educational level of unemployed people, 72.7% have completed secondary school or higher, and 27.3% have a higher or university level, complete or incomplete. Regarding the search time, 71.7% have been looking for a job from less than 1 month to 12 months, while 28.3% have been looking for more than a year.n
