/IPS DEVELOPMENT BULLETIN/ ARGENTINA: Nearly Half of Workforce with Employment Problems

By Marcela Valente Reprint | | Print |

Marcela Valente

BUENOS AIRES, Dec 7 1996 (IPS) - A new study released in Argentina Tuesday said 45 percent of the economically active population had problems with their jobs, and even more so if they are female or young.

The report, compiled by the economist Luisa Montuschi, also warned, contrary to official promises, the labour liberalisation which is working its way through Congress “does not in itself assure the creation of jobs.”

There are 14 million economically active people in Argentina, and according to Montuschi, 2.2 million are completely unemployed, 2.8 million invisibly underemployed – in unstable temporary jobs – and 1.3 million visibly underemployed – working less than 35 hours per week.

The report “Employment in Argentina” warned there was an increase in what she termed the “hopeless workers,” those who give up looking for a job because they now have no hope of finding one and, thus, do not appear in the official statistics.

The government statistics department produces indicators twice yearly in May and October. This year’s first indicator gave a level of 17.1 percent of fully unemployed, and October’s figures have not yet been released.

Employment Minister Armando Caro Figueroa said it could be slightly up on the May rate, at around 18 percent, despite the increased economic activity in the third quarter.

Montuschi’s study also showed the “intensity” of unemployment had increased. In 1995, 47 percent of workers spent more than three months out of work and this year the same index climbed up to 51 percent.

Most of those who have been seeking employment for more than three months are women, “who shoulder most of the burdern of joblessness along with the young people,” said the study.

Montuschi warned the young people “could move into the informal sector and, eventually, into marginalisation” in the next few years.

Ironically enough, this researcher is a member of the Macroeconomics Studies Centre teaching staff, founded by Economy Minister Roque Fernandez, and he is one of the greatest supporters of the “flexibilisation” the report criticises.

Fernandez said Tuesday unemployment will fall to five or six percent in four years, if the labour reforms proposed by the government – with support from the World Bank and part of the business sector – are successfully applied.

Meanwhile, these very initiatives have been rejected by the unions and the Catholic Church.

In fact, the Catholic hierarchy met with president Carlos Menem Monday, asking him to stop the projects in order to avoid making employment less secure and crushing the social advances made in the past.

Argentina’s president, Carlos Menem, had warned he would pass a series of decrees on labour reform if Congress does not approve the projects before the end of the year.

These projects will flexibilise contracts, workschedules, the granting of holidays and payment of annual bonuses for employers.

Menem has frequently been heard to say the labour reform laws will reduce the cost of employment and generate a strong demand for workers.

However, the business community do not agree, saying there is no assurance the new rules will mean the creation of new sources of employment.

This is also the view of the International Labour Organisation report “World Employment 1996/7” to be released Thursday, where it stresses that the flexibilisation of work is not the solution for unemployment.

“The rigidity of the labour market is not the cause of unemployment. In the developing countries labour costs are mostly modest. The minimum salaries are far from what is recommended in the international rules and there is little protection for the poorly qualified or unemployed workers,” said the report.