A new snapshot of Argentina’s labor market showed that conditions continued to deteriorate during the second quarter of 2026, driven by rising informality, the growth of platform-based self-employment and a decline in purchasing power.

According to the latest official data released by Argentina’s statistics agency INDEC on Thursday, unemployment stood at 7.9%, up 0.3 percentage points from the second quarters of both 2025 and 2024 (equivalent to 73,000 more people looking for work without finding it).

Of the 1.2 million unemployed people, four out of 10 are recent job seekers, meaning they have been looking for work for no more than three months, according to consulting firm LCG.

Diego Piccardo, chief economist at the Libertad y Progreso Foundation (LyP), however, warned that the immediate interpretation that the economy is pushing people out of the labor market is incorrect.

His explanation is........

© Buenos Aires Herald