In the middle of a strong recession, accentuated by the devaluation and deepened by the fiscal adjustment policies and contractionary measures of the government of Javier Mileisalaries reached a floor in January 2024, with a drop of 15.5% compared to November 2023. But, from there, a gradual reduction in inflation was marked which, together with the nominal increases, allowed a gradual recovery of purchasing power.
The data comes from a report Research and Training Center of the Argentine Republic (CIFRA) of the Central Workers of Argentina (CTA). The work reviews the evolution of salaries during the libertarian administration, amid contradictory statements from the president himself about the wageswhich -according to him- went from “$300 to u$s1,100“, although later he went out to cross the vice president Victoria Villarruel -who said he earned “two chirolas”- and stated that “the average salary in the economy is $400,000 or so” in pesos.
Salaries: how was the evolution of salaries in 2024?
Registered salaries found a floor in the second quarter of 2024when a certain recovery was observed until practically returning to the level of the last quarter of 2023. However, this level is one of the lowest in recent years, since at that time assets recorded a fall of 2.1% year-on-year and only a few activities showed increases, with marked heterogeneity.
The CTA in its report warns that “the recession especially affected the domestic market,” both from supply and demand and, until now, there are no signs of an expansionary trend.
“The level of consumption approximated from supermarket sales shows a strong contraction since the beginning of the current government, with no signs of recovery and with a deepening of the fall in October 2024, remaining 12% below the level of November 2024. 2023,” they emphasized.
Employment falls and salaries recovered little
In this context of negative economic performance, the employment also observed a significant retraction. “The significant drop in labor-intensive activities, such as construction and certain industrial sectors, was decisive for this result,” they stressed. This produced an increase in unemployment, after several years of downward trajectory, which was rose from 5.7% in the third quarter of 2023 to 6.9% in the same period of 2024. “With this increase, the number of unemployed people can be estimated at 1.6 million,” they projected.
In contrast to previous years, Employment registered in a dependency relationship was strongly affectedsince between November 2023 and October 2024, the number of registered employees fell by almost 187,000. The loss was especially concentrated in the private sector, where the reduction reached practically 124,000 workers (-1.9%). Although, between July and October, there was a slight increase of 0.3% after 11 months of successive falls.
In it public sector there was a drop of more than 43,000 employees registered between November 2023 and October 2024, mainly explained by layoffs and termination of contracts in the National Public Administration. Also playing a key role were effects of budget adjustment on provincial employment.
Have salaries recovered?
The real evolution of registered salaries was conditioned by inflation. In January 2024 they reached a minimum after a 15.5% drop compared to November 2023. From that floor, the Negotiated nominal wage increases exceeded price increasesallowing a gradual recovery of purchasing power, within the framework of a gradual reduction in inflation. Thus, the real average registered salary in October 2024 was 5.5% below the decreased value of November 2023.
“The recovery of registered salaries is only relative”highlights the CTA. This is because salaries returned to levels similar to those at the end of the previous government, at which time they had already suffered significant retractions. This recovery is fundamentally due to the dynamics of salaries in the private sector, since the same performance is not seen in the public sector, they explained.
In October 2024, the real salary of the private sector, according to the INDEC Salary Index, was practically at the same level as in November 2023, while according to data from the SIPA published by the Ministry of Labor exceeded it by 1% and continued to grow an additional 1.6% in November. “Beyond the average evolution, there is strong heterogeneity,” they concluded..
Source: Ambito
David William is a talented author who has made a name for himself in the world of writing. He is a professional author who writes on a wide range of topics, from general interest to opinion news. David is currently working as a writer at 24 hours worlds where he brings his unique perspective and in-depth research to his articles, making them both informative and engaging.
