Einar H. Dyvik
Research expert covering Nordics and global data for society, economy, and politics
Employment in Argentina - statistics & facts
With one of the highest informality rates in Latin America, Argentina鈥檚 labor market keywords often are inflexibility, inequity, and inefficiency. Around 22.4 percent of total employment is considered vulnerable due to significant economic risks such as falling below the poverty line and the impossibility of getting social protection or formal work arrangements. In 2023, another 18 percent of workers already had an average income below sufficient wages to live without any dimensions of vulnerability. The problems were exacerbated due to the COVID-19 pandemic and inflationary crisis the country still faces, where the share of the population considered economically active was reduced and the restrictions augmented the difficulties of getting sufficient means of survival.
The restrictions and measures to stop the spread of the virus also heavily impacted unemployment in Argentina, going from 9.84 percent in 2019 to 11.46 percent in 2020. The year after registered an important recovery and in 2023, the country registered the lowest rate in the last 15 years. This volatility in unemployment exacerbates the concerns of the population about the complicated labor market in two main ways: firstly because more than 32 percent of the unemployed have been unsuccessfully looking for new employment for more than a year and secondly, due to higher unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 24, which in 2023 was around 18 percent.
Employment and unemployment
In 2023, Argentina registered a labor force participation of 71 percent for men and around 51 percent for women, within a labor force of over 21 million workers. During the last two decades, the female participation rate had a considerable increase, while their male counterparts decreased significantly. During that same year, almost three-quarters of the total employed population were employees and, in the most recent data, around 72.8 percent worked in the services industry. The importance of the tertiary sector in the Argentinian labor market continues to expand, even though the share of GDP generated by services fell due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.The restrictions and measures to stop the spread of the virus also heavily impacted unemployment in Argentina, going from 9.84 percent in 2019 to 11.46 percent in 2020. The year after registered an important recovery and in 2023, the country registered the lowest rate in the last 15 years. This volatility in unemployment exacerbates the concerns of the population about the complicated labor market in two main ways: firstly because more than 32 percent of the unemployed have been unsuccessfully looking for new employment for more than a year and secondly, due to higher unemployment rate for those aged 15 to 24, which in 2023 was around 18 percent.
Informal labor market
One of the main problems of the job market in Argentina is informality. Informal labor is often defined as employment happening outside national work legislations, commonly not registered to the government and, therefore, not being taxed. But this is not only affecting tax revenue, but the worker also loses protection and social security benefits provided by law. During 2023, the informal market was responsible for around half of total employment. Moreover, 78 percent of the job positions recovered after the pandemic were also within this sector. The significance of this increases is due to many reasons, including the high costs of registering employees, and the economic uncertainty that the country faces due to the pandemic and high inflation rates. The Argentinian government implemented the National Work Regularization Plan in 2015 to promote social awareness, reduce the rates of unregistered employees, and incorporate more people to social security programs. Nonetheless, the result of the program has been poor, and informality has evolved into an ordinary part of working culture in Argentina.
