News of sector

Economic pick-up fails to filter through to job market

23-06-2025 15:43 Improved economic activity has reversed last year's shrinkage but the improvement has yet to seep through to the labour market – in March the private sector shed over 7,000 jobs with numbers of self-employed simultaneously on the rise.

by Martín Fernández Nadale

PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYMENT

Milei has cut 48,000 public-sector jobs since taking office

28-05-2025 10:18 President’s chainsaw slashes public-sector employment; Staff numbers have fallen 9.6% over the last 17 months, says Argentina’s government.

WAR ON THE STATE

Milei’s ‘chainsaw’ cut nearly 35,000 public-sector jobs in 2024

21-12-2024 05:07 Report by the Deregulation & State Transformation Ministry, headed by Milei ally Federico Sturzenegger, details 34,280 dismissals or contract terminations between December 2023 and October 2024, shrinking the state payroll by seven percent.

STRIKE HITS AVIATION SECTOR

Anti-Milei strike leads to mass flight cancellations

24-01-2024 09:45 State airline Aerolíneas Argentinas forced to cancel more than 260 flights due to CGT’s anti-Milei walkout; Low-cost carriers JetSmart cancels all business for the day, while FlyBondi moves operations to Ezeiza; More than 20,000 travellers affected.

Bloomberg

Billionaire Paolo Rocca has a Plan B for lithium if alpha bid fails

11-10-2023 08:10 Billionaire Paolo Rocca’s oil drilling unit will enter the lithium business one way or another.

BUSINESS & REAL ESTATE

Ex-Soros partner surfs Argentine crisis with real-estate empire

03-10-2023 12:43 Eduardo Elsztain avoided speculative investments in stocks, bonds and derivatives as he built up his empire over the last 30 years. Now his real-estate company IRSA Inversiones y Representaciones is booming, even as Argentina enters recession.

Bloomberg

Argentina seeks to tax lithium boom to avoid region’s resource curse

02-10-2023 11:57 Provincial and federal officials want to tap the profits of lithium companies with an annual tax that would be put toward building infrastructure.

Lithium in Argentina

Lithium boom in Argentina hinges on politics, Zijin unit says

27-09-2023 19:05 Hurdles to lithium development in neighbouring Chile and Bolivia have opened the door for Argentina, says top industry official

'Plan platita'

Government boosts election spending, risking even more inflation

26-09-2023 23:51 Informal jobs make up nearly half of Argentina’s labour market, depending on the degree of formality that’s considered.

'plan platita' reloaded

Massa targets three million voters with informal worker bonus

26-09-2023 23:44 Hours before electoral ban comes into effect, ruling coalition presidential candidate Sergio Massa makes one last ‘plan platita’ play; Economy minister targets between two and three million voters in informal sector with post-devaluation payments.

Bloomberg

China’s Zijin is in talks with Argentina to turn lithium into battery cathode

11-07-2023 17:46 China’s Zijin Mining Group is in advanced talks to build a plant in Catamarca that will turn some of the nation’s huge lithium reserves into cathodes used to make electric-vehicle batteries.

NEW REPORT

Report: Public employment up 34% in Argentina since 2011, private only 3%

05-07-2023 12:32 New report by IERAL, business school of the Fundación Mediterránea think tank, shows a massive imbalance between the growth of public and private sector jobs in Argentina. Only province in which private-sector jobs grew faster was Neuquén, thanks to Vaca Muerta. Córdoba recruited the fewest state employees.