Job losses and informal employment: Argentina’s bleak labor market outlook

20 febrero 2026

By Natalia Kidd

Buenos Aires, Feb 20 (EFE) – Tens of thousands of jobs lost in the private and public sectors and high levels of informal employment paint a bleak picture as Argentina debates unprecedented labor reforms.

According to the latest official data available, Argentina’s unemployment stood at 6.6% in the third quarter of 2025, below the record of almost 21% during the 2001 crisis. However, the number obscures severe problems in an increasingly precarious labor market.

Statistics from various official entities reveal a continued loss of formal, salaried jobs in both the public and private sectors, coupled with an increase in self-employment and informal work.

According to calculations by the Interdisciplinary Institute of Political Economy at the University of Buenos Aires’ Faculty of Economic Sciences, formal salaried employment decreased by nearly 3%, or about 294,000 registered contracts, between November 2023, just before President Javier Milei’s term began, and November 2025.

This figure implies that approximately 400 jobs are lost every day in Argentina.

Fewer formal jobs and business closures

Some of these jobs were lost in the public sector as part of the severe austerity plan implemented by Milei’s administration in late 2023, which involved drastic cuts in government spending.

According to IIEP estimates, since November 2023, some 80,000 people have lost their jobs in the public sector.

In the private sector, the destruction of registered salaried jobs was even greater: 192,000 since November 2023, around 63,000 in the industrial sector.

The drop in employment coincides with the closure of companies, stifled by the lack of credit, the impossibility of competing with imports opened by the government, and depressed demand due to the fall in domestic consumption.

According to a recent report by Fundar, between November 2023 and November 2025, 21,938 companies closed, around 30 per day.

High job insecurity

As formal employment declines, job insecurity is on the rise.

According to official data from the third quarter of 2025, Argentina’s informal employment rate is 43.3%.

Other data point to a dysfunctional labor market: 16.1% of people with jobs are looking for better work or multiple jobs, and 28.2% are «overemployed,» meaning they work more than 45 hours a week in one or more jobs for wages that do not cover their needs and do not match Argentina’s high inflation.

During the parliamentary debate on the labor reform bill, which President Milei hopes will be approved in February, the ruling party stressed the law will reduce business costs, allowing for an increase in formal hiring.

Part of the opposition and the unions do not believe this to be the case, considering that this law will cut workers’ rights.

Business leaders are generally in favor of the reform, but warn that generating formal employment requires economic growth through a boost to credit and investment and a more vigorous domestic market. EFE

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