The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security released its report on registered workwith data from February 2023, which demonstrates generalized growth at record levels.
The “blank” job is also 5.3% above pre-pandemic levels.
Of the salaried employment, in that month the public sector was the one that increased the most, despite the fact that the “freeze” of income to the different government agencies at the national level remains in force.
However, in the interannual comparison it was the private employment the one that added more workerslargely thanks to impulse of the independents (monotributistas and self-employed)
Strong rise in independent work
In total, the Argentine Integrated Pension System (SIPA) showed that there were 13,111 million registered workers in February 2023. In seasonally adjusted terms, it means a positive variation of 0.2% in relation to the previous month (32.4 thousand more people) and of 4.8% (602.2 thousand people) compared to February 2022.
Among wage earners, they accounted for 10.212 million of the total –a month-on-month increase of 0.3% and a year-on-year increase of 3.4% (or 332,700 workers)-, while independent were 2,899 millionwhich represents a month-on-month growth of 0.2% or 5,100 people who entered that segment of registered employment.
In February 2023, a new record was reached in the amount of registered employment
“This growth is mainly explained by the expansion of the number of workers and workers adhered to the monotributo (+0.5%, 9.2 thousand people). Work in the self-employed regime, in turn, presented a variation of +0.1% (0.5 thousand people). For its part, the number of people included in the social monotribute decreased by 0.8% (4.7 thousand fewer people)”, clarifies the analysis of the SIPA data.
In the period of one year, also the Independent work was the category that grew the most in percentage terms: 10.2% or 269.4 thousand workers. It was driven by the single tax (36.7% social single tax and 5.5% single tax), while the self-employed saw an increase of 2.1% in that period.
It is worth clarifying that of the independent work, the self-employed person is the one with the highest income and who can generate more employment.
On the other hand, experts have been warning that part of this increase is supported by the greater needs of households to add extra income -beyond salaried jobs- so as not to lose purchasing power in the face of inflation.
“Since 2012, there has been a continuous loss of participation of private employees in total registered positions, going from 56% in January 2012 to the current 48% (-7.3 percentage points). These were distributed among public employees and independent workers, who went from representing 23% and 21% respectively in January 2012 to 26% currently in both cases,” warned the consultancy Labor, Capital Growth (LCG).
In other words, although Argentina is in a record stage of registered work, the independent segment is the one that has increased its participation the most in the last decade.
Public and private employment
Of the 10.2 million employees, the The public sector showed month-on-month growth of 0.4% in February, while private sector employees were 0.2% more. In the month, according to the analysis of official data by LCG, 13,743 new jobs were created in the public sector, vs. 12,831 in the private.
The highest number of employees in the private sector was reached since 2009
However, in the 12 months between February 2022 and 2023, there was above all a private sector expansion of 4.2% (255.1 thousand people) and, in second order, one of 2.3% of the public sector (77.4 thousand more jobs).
For its part, employment in private homes also presented a variation of 0.2% in February 2023, and more than 200,000 people joined in the year.
“From August 2020 to January 2023, positive variation rates are observed in registered employment. This dynamic of the formal salaried labor market allowed the level of employment in force before the start of the pandemic to be exceeded,” they highlight in the official report. The current level of registered employment is 5.3% above its state in February 2020, before the isolation measures.
Despite the notable increase in freelance positions, there was also good news for private sector wage earnerswith an important milestone registered in February: they are 6.350 million people, the highest number since 2009.
“With the increase in employment observed in February 2023, the 31 months of consecutive growth in registered salaried employment in the private sector. Throughout this expansive phase, 514,000 people managed to access formal salaried jobs in private companies. The current period of growth turns out to be the longest in at least the last 14 years,” notes the Monthly Panorama of Registered Work for May.
When analyzing which were the private sector items that increased their employment levels the most, it can be seen that they are the majority. In one year, it grew 16.7% in hotels and restaurants, 12.5% in construction, 7.9% in mining and quarrying, and 5.8% in commerce and repairs.
In contrast, the sectors where the demand for talent did not recover and decreased in the last year are fishing; financial intermediation and agriculture, livestock, hunting and forestry. The year-on-year falls are less than 1 percent.
With the post-pandemic rebound, hotels and restaurants were the sector with the highest increase in hiring
“Taking into account the private salaried sectors, the service provider sectors were the ones that contributed the most to the monthly growth (58.4% of the total, 7,490 jobs),” said LCG, and completed: “The variation of the goods-producing sector was close, adding 5,341 positions in the month.
Lastly, the net expectations of companies in relation to hiring personnel for the next three months remain positive (2.6%). This indicator arises from the difference between the proportion of companies that expect to increase their endowments (4.3%) and those that expect to decrease it (1.7%).
Average salary
The Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security concluded that the Average gross nominal remuneration in February 2023 was 247,843 pesos per month y grew 101.1% compared to the same month of the previous year.
From the series of remunerations without seasonality, it can be seen that the monthly variation, in February 2023, of the average salary was 8.0% and of the median salary was 8.2%.
“Despite the inflationary acceleration verified in the last months, until February 2023 the purchasing power of the average salary of the registered salaried job in the private sector did not suffer a significant loss. The preservation of the real salary is the result of the capacity that the collective bargaining to adapt to the changing dynamics of prices in a context of accelerating inflation like the current one,” says the official report in this regard.
