A report by the Argentine Industrial Union reported that jobs in the industry showed a slight recovery in June from the previous month, but fell back to the same period in 2019.
Industrial employment had a year-on-year decline in June of -2.7%, representing a drop of 30,195 places. This retraction rate contrasts with that recorded in other sectors such as construction (-27.7%) hotels and restaurants (-10.9%) where isolation measures have a greater impact on activity. Despite sharp year-on-year declines in employment, some contractions began to slow down on a monthly basis and, in some cases, reverse in the margin. In the industry, it increased by 0.2%, an increase of 1,748 places.
“These improvements happened against a back of slight cuts in the fall in industry activity. Following the record variation in production in April of -30.2%, June reported a contraction of -10.7%”, as relieved by the CEU-UIA, representing a monthly increase in activity of +17.7% compared to May.
Suspensions, for their part, were again the main way to handle staffing in a context of labour market regulations. The percentage of companies that applied suspensions in June broke their record the previous month by reaching 19.4%. Thus, 8.4% of workers were suspended during the same month, UIA said. The number of registered employees across the private sector fell back in June. Compared to 2019, the number of jobs decreased by -4.8% i.a. (-289.6 thousand jobs). Thus, in addition to 22 months of falling private registered wage employment, the report said. Meanwhile, it decreased its monthly drop to -0.1% (-5,646 places).
With regard to the industrial sectors where the activity began to adapt to the new normal, the persistence of staff dispensed with attending the workplace (14% of the workers of the companies according to the Covid Impact Report on companies) motivated temporary staff recruitment to compensate for the casualties, with their corresponding impact on costs.
“This context shows the complex scenario faced by employment and businesses six months after the start of COVID-19 in the country. The continuity of the ATP was paramount in easing the situation of companies on a transitional basis, without which the labour market and activity would not be seeing today’s relative improvements,” highlighted the manufacturing chamber.
However, the fragile situation of the labour market in a scenario of new difficulties for businesses requires thinking of comprehensive strategies with clear incentives that take into account not only continuity of employment, but also providing incentives for hiring and the needs of companies to remain active at this delicate juncture, the report closed.
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