Formal employment declined in May and there are more companies with reduction plans

Employment data showed a sharp drop in May, when there were 16,900 fewer jobs than in the seasonally-adjusted season in a context of high uncertainty related to the economic crisis and the economic downturn. the collapse of new hires.

In the fifth month of the year, the total number of workers enrolled in the economy was 12,255,600, according to the Integrated Social Security System (SIPA) released yesterday by the Ministry of Labor. Job.

Of the total number of workers enrolled nearly 51% are employees of the private sector; almost 26% work in the public sector; 16% are self-employed; 3.9% are private home workers and 3.3% are registered as social monotributistas

In all forms of registration, employment was contracted in May and added a 16,900 fewer jobs compared to April. Of this total, 5900 jobs were lost in the private sector wage earner, 4900 in all levels of public administration and 2900 social monotributistas.

The register of self-employed workers also declined: 1100 were counted monotributistas and 1800 autonomous less than in April. In private homes, the recorded contraction was 300 employees.

With these monthly results, May recorded a contraction for the second consecutive month of employment quantity and accumulated in the first two months of the second quarter a destruction of 26,100 jobs

in the middle of the year. a scenario of high volatility, the projections are not encouraging. The latest Survey of Labor Indicators that the national administration carried out in early July with more than 3,000 companies resulted in a sharply reduced net expectation of new recruits in the future, which has reached almost the same level as the previous year. After the devaluation of In response to the question of how companies predict their plant will continue to operate, 85.5% responded that they expected their staff to remain stable, 7 , 8% It plans to increase it and 6.7% said that the number of workers will decrease. This last figure represents a leap of nearly 37% compared to the previous three months, since since March, the number of companies estimating dismissal of staff remains stable below 5%. We must go back to April 2014 to find a number that exceeds the current mark, which is the largest projection of layoffs in the last four years.

According to the reading of the national administration, companies specify This decoupling depends on the evolution of the economy. According to your reading, if the exchange rate stabilizes and the macroeconomic conditions improve, it could mean a stabilization and not a destruction of jobs. "Projecting until December, today, is long term," admits Jose Anchorena, an official of the Ministry of Labor charged to present the data monthly.

Private sector branches that felt the brunt of the economic crisis (with May as the first strong month of the impact of the exchange rate that began on April 25), Manufacturing, which had 3,400 employees less than the previous month (and which accumulates a little over 82,000 fewer jobs than at the beginning of Mauricio Macri's management), followed by community, social and personal services (1,200 fewer jobs, down 0 , 3%); Hotels and restaurants (800 minus or 0.3%); Health and Social Services (low 700 or 0.2%); Trade and repairs (700 or 0.1%) and fishing (200 or 1.4%).

The element that surprised was Construction, which also recorded a fall, which was not usual until now. In the fifth month of the year, this sector recorded 1600 fewer jobs than in April.

Construction was one of the sectors behind the creation of jobs in 2017, boosted by investments in public works. But in May, and with an adjustment horizon for spending, activity slowed its growth (it went from 10% to just over 4%) and this had a negative impact on the level. d & # 39; employment.

Another extreme, the category of real estate, commercial and rental activities, added 2,300 workers (or + 0.3%). Agriculture, livestock, hunting and forestry (+900 or 0.3%) and mining and quarrying (+300 or 0.3%) are the other sectors having obtained positive results.

inflation, since in May it rose 26.6% against 26.3% inflation. If we look at the evolution of the median wage, more than half of the workers have lost 0.7% in relation to price developments.