Argentine employment quality deteriorated over 15 years, no short-term improvement expected: UCA study

Argentina's labor market has seen a significant decline in job quality over the past 15 years, according to a study by the Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA). While employment has grown, the UCA's Observatory of Argentine Social Debt (ODSA-UCA) found that this growth is concentrated in precarious, low-paying positions.

The report, which analyzed data from national household surveys and government ministries, concludes that the issue is a structural problem within Argentina's labor market, not attributable to specific governments. Researchers identified economic stagnation, low productivity, macroeconomic instability, and fragmented regulations as contributing factors.

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It is a structural problem of the Argentine labor market, not of the last governments.

The study highlights that since 2016, an increase in labor participation has not led to lower unemployment but rather to a deepening of precarious employment. By 2025, an estimated 27% of salaried workers were in formal but precarious jobs, with a growing share in the micro-informal sector characterized by less protection and lower pay.

Furthermore, a shift in the productive structure has impacted employment. Traditional sectors like manufacturing and construction have decreased their contribution to value creation, while finance and resource-linked activities have gained prominence. These new growth drivers do not absorb workers as effectively as historical formal employment sectors. Coupled with stagnant productivity since 2010, this limits the potential for wage and labor condition improvements.

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We have more employment. The problem is the quality of those jobs.