Milei denies Argentines cant make ends meet and unemployment is soaring

President Javier Milei reappeared after several days without a public appearance, delivering an effusive speech in which he dismissed concerns over rising unemployment, falling wages and companies closing during his administration. “Let’s see the kind of stupid things people repeat every day, like ‘people can’t make ends meet,’ or ‘technologic progress destroys jobs’?” he said in a mocking tone while speaking at the closure of the 26th Council of the Americas, an event that gathers high-profile businesspeople. Milei said that the economic data contradicts the criticism of his government, and joked: “I don’t know whether reporters hate data more than zurdos hate water,” implying that left-wing supporters are dirty. While unemployment has not increased dramatically, it stood at 7.8% in the first quarter of the year, 0.3 percentage points higher than in the last quarter of 2025 and 2.1 percentage points above the level when Milei took office in December 2023. The number of unemployed reached 1.1 million people. Meanwhile, informality increased by 2.2% annually, meaning that some workers who lost their jobs had to find work under more precarious conditions. Milei said that “neither unemployment increased nor salaries dropped,” and justified lower salaries for public employees by saying it means “paying less taxes.” According to statistics institute INDEC, private-sector salaries increased by 1.9% in June, matching the inflation rate recorded that month. However, they remain 3.6% below November 2023 levels, the month before Milei took office. Closure of companies Milei also stated that “if companies are disappearing and so many jobs are being lost, unemployment should be soaring, and that is not happening.” “It is true that companies are disappearing, but they are one-employee companies, while there are others opening that have 10 employees,” he said. “Just like some companies disappear, others appear, and that’s because the economic conditions have changed.” According to a monthly report by think tank Fundar, in May 2026 there were 30,633 fewer companies compared to November 2023. This is around the same number of companies that were lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. Inflation During his speech, the president also reiterated his commitment to lower inflation and making the economy grow. He said that “inflation has dropped by 85%” and highlighted that wholesale inflation was 0.8% in July. “I said that when inflation started with a 0 digit I would give another music show, so I’ll start rehearsing,” he announced. Critics point out that Milei had assured retail inflation would go down to 0 by this point. However, it was 2.1% in July, according to INDEC. Abortion In another portion of his speech, the libertarian leader blamed legal abortion for Argentina’s falling birth rate, despite the trend dating back to 2014, four years before abortion was legalized in 2020. “If one characteristic of growth is the return on capital, what happens in the labor market and among the population is also important. In fact, we’re paying dearly for the madness of the ‘green scarves,’” Milei said, referring to the symbol of the fight for legal abortion in Argentina that was also adopted in other Latin American countries. “Today, Argentina’s population growth and birth rates are insufficient to ensure population replacement. Therefore, this obsession with killing children in their mothers’ wombs also costs us dearly in terms of growth — not to mention in terms of the social security system,” the president stated.