Employment plummets in 2025 as economy rises due to more informal work

Unemployment in Argentina went up to 7.5% in the last quarter of 2025. The number is 1.1 percentage points higher than the same period of 2024 and almost 2 points above late 2023, a new report by Argentinas statistics institute INDEC revealed. The figure is in contrast with the growth of economic activity and GDP, which is estimated to have increased by 4.4% in 2025, according to INDEC data. Experts say that this is explained by an increasing number of people looking for jobs to make up for low income. The latest INDEC report shows that there was an increase in informal jobs. Unemployment reached its highest level for the fourth quarter of a year since the pandemic.  For the first time in 20 years, the GDP has increased while unemployment has also gone up, economist and head of consultant agency T+1 Juan Manuel Telechea wrote on X. The numbers In total, 1.7 million people are unemployed, 230,000 more than in late 2024. The activity rate, which measures the number of economically active people, went up by almost 3 percentage points to 48.6%, while the employment rate or percentage of people with an occupation in relation to the total population number dropped by almost 1 point to 45%. Informal work also went from 42% to 43% in the last quarter of 2025, while registered jobs dropped by almost one percentage point to 56.9%. Unemployment is at its highest level in four years; job growth in absolute terms is not keeping pace with population growth (which is why the employment rate is falling); and the composition of the labor market is shifting, as reflected in a gradual but persistent rise in the rate of informal employment, tweeted Daniel Schteingart, sociologist at public policy think tank Fundar. According to macroeconomist Federico Pastrana, director of consultant agency C-P, almost no sector has created jobs, and if they did, they did so sporadically. Self-employment did not increase according to the loss of registered jobs, like it had happened in recent years, Pastrana added, meaning that those lost jobs had a toll on the increasing unemployment rate. Unemployment increased more in the areas surrounding Buenos Aires City and was higher (around +3%) among young people between 14 and 29, who have more precarious jobs and lower salaries than other age segments. The safety nets against unemployment are beginning to run out, Pastrana warned. Cover photo: mostafa mahmoudi/Unsplash