Milei’s government continues its crusade to deliver good news. This time it celebrated a supposed improvement in private employment, accompanied by a 2.8% year-on-year increase in private sector wages in November, El Destape digital newspaper comments.

However, as the newspaper points out in its analysis, 2024 ended with a net destruction of jobs and sources of employment and a loss of purchasing power. The Ministry of Labour’s own data show that the meagre improvements in employment are in the segment of temporary jobs.

Figures from consulting firms and from the Chambers of Commerce themselves qualify the results disseminated by the government. A study by the Argentine Centre for Political Economy (CEPA) states that “between November 2023 and September 2024, the number of employers (companies) was reduced by 11,931 cases”.

In absolute terms, the most affected sector is wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles, with a loss of 2,515 employers.

In relative terms, construction is the most affected sector, with a loss of 6.5 % of total employers. Over the same period, 215 981 jobs were lost in production units (-2.19 %).

The construction sector is the most affected in terms of job losses, with a fall of 85 233 persons employed. It is also the most affected in relative terms (-17.9%).

If we analyse the reduction in the number of employers, we can see that, in these first ten months of Milei’s government, it is mainly companies with up to 500 employees that have been affected: 99.5% of the total number of cases. In this sector, 11,870 companies have disappeared.

Analysing the decline in registered employment by company size, it can be seen that during the first months of Milei’s government, the expulsion of workers was more significant in larger companies: 57.2% of the job losses (-123,534 registered workers) were concentrated in companies with more than 500 workers.

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