Unemployment in Argentina reaches 7.9%, highest level since 2021

Unemployment climbed to 7.9 percent in the second quarter of this year, marking a significant rise in the number of people seeking work.

Up by 0.3 percentage points from the same period last year and 0.1 points for the first quarter of this year, these data show 48.9 percent of the total population to be economically active while the employed workforce is 45 percent of the population.

The 7.9 percent unemployment figure represents jobless people available for work and actively seeking employment as a percentage of the economically active.

According to the INDEC national statistics bureau, neither the employment nor unemployment figures registered significant variations from the same period last year but the 48.9 percentage for the economically active represents a statistically significant rise of 0.8 percentage points from the same quarter last year.

Informal employment also presented a statistically significant increase of one percentage point with respect to the same quarter last year.

In inland urban centres, the unemployment and underemployment figures presented statistically significant increases of 1.3 and 0.9 percentage points to reach 7.6 and 9.1 percent, respectively.

The percentage of the self-employed within the informal sector increased three percentage points from 34.3 to 37.3 percent.