Labor market 2023: where the best jobs will be

After the strong growth in post-pandemic labor demand, private employment will enter a plateau, specialists predict.

This will be a year of hiring in specific sectors.

Where will the work be?

"2021 was a year of tremendous post-pandemic recovery, in line with the economic recovery. In 2022 there were

, specific opportunities, in tune with the pre-pandemic market, and this will continue in 2023," says Matías Ghidini, CEO of GhidiniRodil.

In an uncertain year, there will be work in positions linked to the transformation processes of companies.

For Ghidini, "we returned to the historical plateau of a weakened labor market."

And he provides numbers: "In ten years (August 2012 to August 2022)

while the public did so at 28.3%. And in the same period, self-employed workers fell by 5% while the monotributistas increased by 40%. Ergo, quantity is not quality," he says.

For his part, Luis Guastini, general director of ManpowerGroup Argentina, points out that this is

: the election year, the uncertainty of how the drought will impact in terms of foreign exchange earnings and what will happen in the world -from Covid in China to the global recession- could have some impact," he lists.

However, "there are some activities that will continue to grow, that will not be so affected by the context situation, for example,

," he says.

In this area, "positions linked to the transformation processes of companies in general are being demanded above all:

software and application developers," he points out.

First trimester

Manpower's traditional expectations survey shows

for the first quarter of the year, with a net employment expectation (ENE) of +9%, three points more than the last quarter of 2022, but well below the two previous quarters (+13% and +18%).

The ENE is calculated by taking the percentage of employers that anticipate an increase in their workforce and subtracting the percentage that expects a decrease.

The result is seasonally adjusted to avoid the impact of fluctuations in hiring at different times of the year. 

According to this survey,

(32%), followed by Information Technology (21%) and Energy and Utilities (19%).

Also Communication Services, Transport, Logistics and Automotive and Industry and Materials showed expectations above the ENE.

Large companies (with more than 250 employees) reflect the highest expectations for hiring personnel: +24%.

The small ones, between 10 and 49 employees, the minor ones: +1%.

By sectors

With the decline in economic growth and the rise in inflation,

.

"There is a lot of uncertainty and to this is added the sword of Damocles of the lack of dollars", analyzes, for her part, Gabriela Pereyra, founder of ModoBeta.

The companies, he assures, "are putting a foot on the brake, with which the job offer begins to loosen up."

For Ghidini, "

will persist , limited to a handful of sectors."

And he names: technology, FinTech, AgTech, HealthTech, shared service centers, construction and, perhaps, tourism.

Adecco adds other sectors among those that will offer work in 2023: "there will be opportunities

, retail, tourism and gastronomy, transportation and computer services," lists Carla Cantisani, director of Quality, Services and Transformation.

The software industry is one of the sectors that generates the most employment.

According to the Chamber of the Argentine Software Industry (CESSI), between 2019 and 2021, 18,541 new jobs were created.

But the main companies in the sector cannot find the right profiles to cover them, so

.

Despite the news of layoffs in big tech globally, "tech profiles will find work in the more traditional sectors: heavy industry, the countryside," says Ghidini.

The main opportunities will be in the digitization of some sectors in which "agtech" or "agrotech" companies, "healthtech" and "edtech" companies have emerged.

In the

, registered employment grew in 2022. According to the report on "Industry Labor Indicators" from the Center for Studies of the Argentine Industrial Union (CEU), there was a year-on-year growth of 4.4% between September 2021 and the same month of 2022.

Those who hired the most were manufacturers of metal products for structural use (+2,409 positions), auto parts (+2,207 positions), other metal products (+2,092 positions), footwear (+ 1,782 positions), agricultural machinery (+ +1,581 jobs), and concrete, cement and plaster (+1,489 jobs), says that report.

"To these activities we must add

, which has increased the demand for professionals in the last 12 months and has become one of the most dynamic segments of industrial activity," says Daniel Urman, director of NUMAN. 

"We estimate that

, with a market marked by very strong competition for talent," says Urman.

Towards the second half of the year, "probably the electoral scenario will condition the decision-making of the companies, so it

."

By 2023, the demand will come mainly from

.

"Latin America is quite behind other regions in this process. There is a lot of ground to be gained and in this context new positions and areas are being created," Urman details. 

On the other hand, the areas of operations of industrial companies have greater challenges than other areas to appear attractive to attract talent, since they

.

"We see that there are many professionals who started out within an area of ​​operations who welcome positions that move them away from the operation

, to move on to project, development or quality areas," Urman describes.

For this reason, "the professional

because companies are going to sue him."

Export of professional services

The export of professional services was boosted by the pandemic and will continue to grow in 2023, due to the "disruption in the dollar exchange rate," says Ghidini.

Thus, the number of young people who independently take advantage of the double advantage of

will grow .

According to Ramiro Raposo, Country Manager of Bitwage, a platform for payment of fees in cryptocurrencies and digital dollars, the countries that hire Argentine professionals the most are the United States, Spain, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

“

reaching payments of up to USD 5,000 per month”, he reports.

Most are from the IT sector:

, etc.

But other areas are also growing, such as marketing consultants, translators, psychologists and English teachers. 

For Ghidini, "this trend has an open end", since "

, both because of the concern and official monitoring of the government to find a way around it and because of the labor and tax marginality in which these

operate. "he observes.

What are companies looking for?

A recent study by Manpower on the most required profiles and the most demanded skills showed that, after information technology, "customer service positions appear," says Guastini.

Operations and logistics positions are also in high demand, due to the growth of e-commerce, and sales and marketing positions.

"Soft skills occupy an increasingly dominant role when choosing a candidate, especially because of the speed with which hard knowledge has to be revalidated," says the CEO of Manpower.

In this sense

.

Self-discipline and the ability to solve problems and take initiative are also valued. 

"Companies look for people who can innovate, who can change, who bring new ideas, but then they have the problem that they are not prepared for what disruptive thinking means," warns Pereyra.

Regarding senior positions, "we see companies from different sectors that will continue to demand CFO (Chief Financial Officer), CTO (Chief Technology Officer), or CPO (Chief Product Officer) profiles and talents with experience in digital, new technologies, information security and data architecture”, says Ezequiel Palacios, associate director of Glue Executive Search

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