Due to the pandemic, in the City the fall in employment affected 275,000 people and unemployment jumped to 14.7%

Ismael Bermúdez

08/12/2020 - 17:05

• Clarín.com
• Economy
• Economy

Due to the pandemic, in the City of Buenos Aires in the second quarter of this year , almost 275,000 people stopped being employed , which, due to the context of the health emergency, the majority - some 252,000 - went into inactivity. For this reason, unemployment increased by 22,900 people, adding up to a total of 211,473 unemployed , 14.7% of the active population, compared to 11.1% in the first quarter. In the neighborhoods of the South zone, unemployment climbs to 21%.

On the other hand, underemployment - work of few hours or changas - increased from 9.9 to 12.3%, equivalent to 177,003 people, according to official figures from the Buenos Aires Department of Statistics and Censuses.

In absolute numbers, in the second quarter, the total number of employed in Buenos Aires decreased from 1,504,020 to 1,229,049, while the unemployed increased from 188,540 to 211,473. Unemployed men total 102,568 and unemployed women 108,905.

If the comparison is extended to the second quarter of 2019, when the employed totaled 1,551,973, the fall in employment affected 322,924 people.

The Report of the Buenos Aires Statistics and Census Directorate clarifies that "the limited dynamics of the labor market due to the severe restriction to movement affected employment levels , as well as the search and availability to work."

Consequently, the reduction in the employment rate - it fell from 49 to 40% in just three months - “is largely explained by the context of the health emergency, which caused many employed people to become new “ atypical ”inactive people . And the Report adds that “it is difficult to establish whether they are effectively inactive, that is, if they really do not have a job and are not actively looking for it or if they are framed in particular situations: for example, the person in.

The official Buenos Aires measurement also observed "a year-on-year increase in absent employed persons (employed persons who did not attend their job in the reference week for different reasons)". In the second quarter of 2020, absent employed persons totaled 259,000, 21.1% of the total employed, while in the same quarter of the previous year there were 58,000, 3.7% of the total.

The Report indicates that “78% of the employed population residing in the City are salaried, while 17.4% work as self-employed . It should be noted that, in this quarter, both exhibited a year-on-year decrease of more than 300,000 fewer employed persons, with the self-employed (to a greater extent) and salaried workers (especially the unregistered) the most affected in this context of quarantine, given their vulnerability within of the labor market ”. The activities with the greatest drop in employment were industry, construction and commerce.

In addition, the Report adds, “there is a large year-on-year increase in people suspended from their job in a dependency relationship or who do not attend their job for other work reasons. Two large groups result from this population: employed and “non-employed” (made up of both the unemployed and the inactive population). This last group differs from the previous one by not receiving a payment during the suspension or by not having security of return to the job ”.

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