The labor market ended 2022 with 1,682,000 employed (57.8%), a figure similar to that of the previous year and the highest since 2018, and with 144,000 unemployed (7.9%), one point below the percentage in 2019, that is, before the pandemic.
“In the territory we have inequalities in terms of unemployment. There are departments where the unemployment rate is above 10% when the average rate is two points lower,” said Mieres, referring to departments such as Salto, Río Negro, Rocha, Lavalleja and Treinta y Tres.
On the other hand, others like maldonado, Cologne, Saint Joseph and Peach stand out as the departments with the best data on the labor market, with a unemployment rate around 5% or even less.
Informality dropped to 20%, according to Mieres
One of the most positive aspects that the minister pointed out is the decline in informalitywhich is concentrated in construction and commerce and which went from 25% in 2019 to 20% in 2022.
“That speaks of the fact that, in addition to recovering employment, it is a job that increases formality,” Mieres boasted.
The head of Labor and Social Security linked this drop in informality to the pandemic, where being formal was an “advantage” due to “partial unemployment and sickness benefits, which included quarantined workers.”
In addition, he added that last year ended with around 8.5% underemployedthat is, the set of employed people who work less than 40 hours a week and who want and can work more hours, a figure below 2021 (11.3%) and 2019 (9.5%).
What the minister said about the evolution of real wages
The end of 2022 also resulted in an increase in actual salarywhich grew on average a 1.1% above the figure in 2021, although still 2.1% below of December 2019.
“In 2022 we agreed with the unions to recover purchasing power to reach pre-pandemic levels. The increases in January 2022 reflect a recovery, those of 2023 consolidate it and I would say that in 2024 it will already be fully recovered,” Mieres stressed.
The objective, according to the minister, is that in this year’s salary round the recovery process is completed and that agreements are agreed upon in the Salary Council that, in the two years between July 2023 and June 2025, ” finish closing the gap of falling wages”.
The sectors hardest hit by the pandemic and that are furthest from reaching pre-pandemic wages are trade (-4.2%), the transport (-4.3%) and the Hotels and restaurants (-6.7%).
Concern about youth unemployment, which triples the national rate
When asked about which sectors the ministry wants to promote in the future, Mieres mentioned that, in reality, what worries him are “inequities”, especially “the difficulty they have young people, people with disabilities and women“.
point to the youth unemployment ratethat triples the national with a 25%, and specifies that one of the main barriers for young people when accessing the labor market is “the lack of experience“.
For this reason, the Minister of Labor and Social Security proposed generating employment articulated with study, such as internships, although he asserted that “there is a fundamental problem” which is that “education is more up-to-date than labor market trends.”
In addition, he stated that the current employment promotion law for vulnerable sectors, it incorporates an incentive to the employer in the first work experience program, which obtains exemption from employer contributions if it maintains a worker under 25 years of age for more than one year.
Thus, Mieres added that “there are no weeks without meetings with unions” and that there will continue to be labor relations “with differences and strong discussions”, but that the ministry will continue to function “with open doors and with a lot of dialogue.”
Source: Ambito
