Ismael Bermúdez
07/07/2020 - 10:15
- Clarín.com
- Economy
- Economy
If there was a continuous closure of companies from the beginning of 2018 until the eve of the coronavirus, with the pandemic and quarantine that process became more pronounced and in just 2 months there was an additional loss of 18,546 companies or employers.
According to AFIP data, in May, 520,207 employers declared that in April they had 7,595,704 workers in a dependency relationship. In March there were 539,053 companies with 7,880,585 people hired. Thus, in two months 18,546 companies stopped contributing to Social Security and ended up leaving 284,821 workers.
This fall of companies already accumulates more than four years. It had three moments : during 2016 and 2017 there was a reduction of almost 3,000 employers, to collapse in the following two years due to the recession and now due to the cocktail of pandemic and quarantine.
With the change of government, the closure of companies continued. Official figures indicate that since the beginning of the year there are 21,699 fewer companies, with a drain of 16,889 service companies and 4,810 manufacturers of goods. All branches and sectors without exception were affected, and among the most affected were commerce –4,254 fewer businesses - , construction –2,131 less- and industry –1,548 establishments less.
In May 2018, there were 562,157 companies with contributions to Social Security. A year later, 548,967. And now 520,207 companies. In two years, the AFIP counts 41,950 fewer companies.
Before quarantine, this went through a combination of recession, high interest rates, soaring inflation and the dollar, falling wages and incomes for professionals and self-employed workers. And the most affected were small businesses and formal salaried and independent work. Logically, due to the lack of records, there are no data on the losses of businesses, businesses and informal jobs.
At the beginning of the year, this process did not stop, as the loss of companies in the first months marks, to accentuate with the pandemic and the quarantine that hit almost all activities, with the exception of essential calls.
In January, the AFIP registered 542,206 companies, in February 541,357, in March 539,053, in April 526,434 and in May 520,207. As can be seen, the bleeding was continuous, with the greatest drop in the last two months.
Although the State, through the ANSeS, was in charge of paying a part (between $ 16,875 and $ 33,750) of the companies' wages, postponed the payment of taxes, reduced employer contributions, implemented the Emergency Family Income (IFE) and granted rate 0 loans to monotributistas and self-employed, the collapse of activity led to the closure of businesses, shops and industry, especially SMEs.
It is discounted that this closure of companies is still ongoing and that the official data for June will mark the size of these losses.
