The Minister of Labor of the Nation, Claudius Moroniestimated this Wednesday that the registered unemployment rate “may continue to fall”, after reaching 6.9%, “one of the lowest ever measured”; and assured that “Argentina is one of the countries that lost the least salary in the region and the world” after the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Today we have one of the highest levels of activity and a lower unemployment rate than those that have been measured: 47.9 and 6.9, respectively; and we believe that it can continue to fall,” Moroni assured before the Budget and Treasury Commission of the Chamber of Deputies.
Despite coming from “a recession of two years, the pandemic and the war in ukraine”, he highlighted that “Argentina is one of the countries that lost the least salary in the region and in the world.
“We are facing a severe inflation problem; If we analyze the numbers out of context, the world lost between 10 and 12 points of real income, while Argentina lost three; and we lost very little employment,” he assured.
In this regard, he pointed out that “the agenda should be on the inflation issue because it is very difficult to recover wages with such high inflation.”
“Today we have one of the highest levels of activity and a lower unemployment rate than has been measured.”Claudius Moroni
In front of legislators from all parties who must discuss the bill Budget Law 2023Moroni added that “the structure of the 2023 Budget is dissimilar to that of the budgets of previous years because the situation is totally different.”
The official mentioned that in 2021 “assistance to workers and companies was prioritized” but that currently “the situation has changed diametrically.”
“Thanks to these policies, the outlook for this year and 2023 is totally different; That is why we put more effort into the Foster Employment Program, launched the Employment Portal and worked hard to assist in the regulation of teleworking.”, he listed.
The Minister of Labor added that in the latest data for July and August “the growth rate of salaried employment is 0.6%”, which is “very high for Argentina” because “it means 36 thousand monthly jobs”.
“This rate has been repeating itself over the last 19 months: we are, unlike the previous moment, in a situation of growing employment at high rates for what is Argentine history,” he insisted.
Moroni also indicated that “the largest number of registered in the social security system and the largest number of workers was registered”.
“Regarding collective agreements, as of August, and despite the accelerated inflation that reached 56.4%, the average of agreements is around 57.1%,” he stressed.
In this regard, he reflected: “Faced with a phenomenon of high inflation, like the ones we had these months, collective bargaining shows that, with some delays, it adjusts wages with inflation.”
In that sense, he predicted that he sees a panorama for 2023 “where employment grows and economic activity too.”
“That is why we are going to aim at promoting employment by targeting populations that are most affected by unemployment: such as women, young workers and workers over 45 years of age,” he stressed.
The minister maintained that “in 2023 we are going to promote insertion in formal and productive employment, prioritizing SMEs.”
Therefore, the official highlighted the implementation of the Bridge to Employment Program: “what today is part of the allocation to the person, will be part of the salary with a decrease in contributions.”
