Argentina’s economy is starting to look tidier when it comes to macroeconomics, but that improvement has not yet translated into a clear recovery in the job market. Unemployment levels remain virtually at the same level as a year ago, but there are worrying signs such as the growth of informal work, which already affects 44.4 percent of workers, or four out of every nine.

“Making an analogy with the World Cup, macroeconomics is now tidier but the job market is playing a different match,” analysed Laura Caullo, an Economics graduate who heads the Employment and Social Policy Department at Fundación Mediterránea’s IERAL institute.

She further warned that there are provinces with a “damaged” job market which still cannot be revived.

According to data from the INDEC national statistics bureau, Argentina’s unemployment rate was 7.8 percent in the first quarter of 2026, practically the same level as the same period in 2025. That percentage means around 1.8 million people actively seeking work in Argentina.

According to Caullo, the core problem not only lies in the number of jobless people but the quality of jobs available. “There are enough jobs in Argentina. The thing is the jobs we have are of low quality,” she suggested.

The economist specified that informal work now affected 44.4 percent, or nine million workers, all of whom without social security and pension contributions, occupational hazards coverage and other benefits associated with the stability of formal employment.

Caullo described the current scenario as a “two-pronged economy.” On the one hand, there is progress in a balanced budget, lower inflation and reordered monetary policy. Yet, on the other hand, employment appears to be the “injured player” of recovery, especially in more labour-intensive activities.

“The injured player today is employment and, in particular, those labour-intensive economic activities,” said Caullo. As she explained, the sectors driving the economy today – fossil fuels, mining, financial services and information technology – might not be the main job creators.

This is central to understanding why the improvement of some macroeconomic indicators is still not being strongly felt in the pockets of workers. According to Caullo, those sectors account, on average, for merely three out of every 100 formal jobs – conversely, trade, industry and construction harbour around 40 percent of total employment in Argentina.

The flipside is that those more labour-intensive sectors still do not show a sufficiently solid revival to push a widespread improvement of the job market. Until that recovery arrives, employment will continue to struggle to “return to the pitch,” in the economist’s own words.

Moonlighting, underemployment, pressure

Another growing phenomenon is the so-called “job pressure” – people already employed, but seeking a new job, more work hours or finding an extra job because income is not enough. According to Caullo, this behaviour reflects the deterioration of household purchasing power and the need to increase family income.

“When a worker’s income is not enough at home, more members of that household start to join the job hunt,” she explained. In that world, jobhunters show up, looking to change jobs, as well as underemployed people, wanting to work more hours. In addition to the unemployed, they form a group of over 5.5 million workers under job pressure.

Out of the total, nearly 2.5 million are people who already have a job but are still looking for another. Caullo believes this confirms that the problem in the Argentine job market does not end with outright unemployment; it also includes insufficient wages, part-time jobs and a growing demand for better working conditions.

In Córdoba, for instance, job pressure affects over a third of the economically active population while the national average is around a quarter of the workforce.

“Wages are not enough, that is why they push to change jobs, increase working hours and somehow to make ends meet,” Caullo summarised.

Young women: more jobs but lower quality

The informal work diagnosis has more sensitive information: the wear is hitting young women harder. A report by IDESA warns that the falling birthrate, a phenomenon also taking place in Argentina, is driving greater female involvement in the job market. However, that addition is not felt in formal employment but mostly in precarious or unskilled jobs.

According to the survey, between 2015 and 2025 some 220,000 women aged 20 to 29 joined the job market. Yet their insertion was centred on informal jobs: 140,000 became unregistered private wage-earners and a further 130,000 were self-employed whereas the number of formal female wage-earners dropped by 50,000. According to IDESA, this shows that the good news of greater female job involvement is diluted by the weakness of demand in quality jobs.

The report also links this trend with the so-called “demographic dividend” – a window of opportunity whereby the proportion of people of working age increases with respect to children and the elderly. Yet that opportunity may be wasted if the increased labour supply is not in registered and productive jobs. In that case, as warned by IDESA, the current improvement will be limited and the country will accumulate liabilities towards the future, when the population will age more sharply.

In line with Caullo’s suggestion, IDESA’s work insists that tidier macroeconomics is a necessary but not sufficient condition. In order to reverse informal work, it suggests accelerating labour reform, decentralising collective bargaining, reducing labour litigation and establishing a tax floor for employer contributions, especially to drive formal employment among micro-PyMEs (small and medium-sized companies) where many informal jobs are concentrated.

Provinces and districts

Job pressure also shows marked differences among provinces. Caullo explained that in some northern provinces like Formosa, Santiago del Estero and Chaco, a smaller workforce may be observed, associated with economies more dependent on the public sector and with less dynamic private employment.

At the other extreme appear the great urban conglomerates like Greater Buenos Aires and Córdoba where the job market is more active due to the density of population and the productive fabric. Nevertheless, job pressure is also higher there because the competition for the available jobs is greater and opportunities insufficient when measured against the aspirations of the population.

The labour map thus shows low participation and a less dynamic private sector in some provinces. In the major urban centres, in contrast, there is more movement but also greater pressure on a market not generating sufficient quality jobs.

Labour and pending reforms

Consulted as to what needs to happen for macroeconomic order to translate into more visibly improved jobs, Caullo maintained that the path initiated by the reform is “adequate” although explaining that there will not be any magic or immediate results. She also considered that the labour reform could be a step in the correct direction although insufficient by itself.

“The labour reform, with certain restrictions which I understand to be part of politics, could have been more ambitious but it is a step on the right path. Nevertheless, it is a necessary but not sufficient condition,” she argued. For the economist, Argentina still has structural reforms pending, among them taxation and pensions.

Caullo remarked that the country has businesspeople, human capital and conditions for improvement while warning that electoral uncertainty remains a factor affecting the march of the economy.

“Argentina is electorally conditioned every two years, which is not minor (as a risk)” she pointed out, warning that next year’s presidential elections could again introduce tensions into activity after last year’s midterms.

For now, the data on the table are conclusive – unemployment has not exploded but the quality of employment has deteriorated. In an economy seeking to show signs of stabilisation, the challenge remains to transform macro-economic improvements into registered jobs, better pay and greater social protection.