The recovery of economic activity after the pandemic – +10.4% in 2021 and +5.2% in 2022 – was accompanied by an increase in employment not registeredwith lower wages and informal self-employment, which has resulted in greater job insecurity and higher poverty rates even among those who are employed and registered.
The employment that grew the most in both 2021 and 2022 was that of irregular workers. After the collapse in 2020 due to the pandemic and the quarantine, in 2021 the jobs they grew by 4.4%, when those of non-registered workers more than doubled (+10.4%), going from 4,486,000 to 4,975,000.
In 2022, job positions increased by 5.8%, and those of irregular workers more than doubled: at the end of last year they were added records 5,613,000with an increase of 12.9%, equal to 641,000 jobs.
The 5,613,000 informal jobs, which far exceed the 5,119,000 at the end of 2019, equal to 43.3% of a total of 12,955,000 jobs of wage earners in a ratio of private dependency, according to the “Income generation and labor input account” published by INDEC on Tuesday. In 2021, that percentage was 41.4%.
Furthermore, there are 5,720,000 independent or self-employed jobs – a high share of which are precarious and informal – and 3,690,000 in the public sector. In total there are 22,365,000 jobs against 21,130,000 a year ago. There are 1,235,000 additional jobs, just over half of which are informal wage earners.
Of those registered, the increase was 350,000 jobs. And self-employment, mostly informal, increased by 245,000. A large part of this sector are dependent positions undertaken as “invoicers” or monotributists.
In the public sector, the job positions went from 3,649,000 to 3,690,000: there were 41,000 new positions.
In four activities, unregistered wage earners are more numerous than registered ones: private domestic staff out of 1,711,000 employed, 1,204,000 are not registered (70.3%), despite the official incentives for the registration of female workers. In agriculture and livestock 1,279,000 employees, 650,000 non-registered (50.8%), with 613,000 “autonomous” jobs.
In private social and health services, out of 698,000, 371,000 (53.2%) are not enrolled. And in Other community, social and personal service activities, out of a million, 501,000 are not registered.
All these official data mark the strong advance of job precariousness. And along with the deterioration in wages came lower labor costs, suggesting that the recovery of the economy was aided by the impoverishment of the workforce, both registered and unregistered.
In conjunction with the INDEC, based on data from the fourth quarter of last year, the Directorate of Statistics and Censuses of the city of Buenos Aires reported that “in the city, 314,000 wage earners make up the population without enrollment in social security or who contribute exclusively alone without your employer making the pension discounts required by law. This means that just over one employee and wage earner out of four is in precarious working conditions”.
The Buenos Aires Report indicates that “in relation to the fourth quarter of 2021, the population thatand work for you increased by 6.0%, until reaching the highest record in the series, which began at the end of 2014. In the meantime, if we compare it with 2019, the increase is 10.8%”.
Anyone who is not registered is deprived of social security benefits, has lower wages, has no coverage against accidents at work, is not entitled to a pension and social security benefits.
Furthermore, it explains why when they reach retirement age they do not meet the 30 years of contributions to access their pension, and have to resort to moratoriums, taking on payment for the periods not paid by their employers. Or retire with the PUAM (Universal Elderly Pension) with 80% of the minimum credit.
Source: Clarin
