Poverty, unemployment, inflation rise in Argentina.
| Autor | Gaudin, Andres |
A mere 18 months after Mauricio Macri assumed the presidency and brought back neoliberal policies that had prevailed at the end of the 20th century but had been abandoned in 2003, Argentina's social indicators have taken on a disturbing rhythm (NotiSur, Dec. 4, 2015).
The latest statistics--both official and private--reveal that the growth of poverty and unemployment indexes for the full year far exceeds the official estimate of 17%. In a report released June 5, the Centro de Economia Politica Argentina (CEPA), a think tank on the economy made up of state university graduates, revealed that by December, the annual cost of living increase will be about 24%, seven points more than the official projection.
Poverty hardest on youth
Children and adolescents are the most affected by the new reality. A study on children welfare by the Barometro de la Deuda Social de la Infancia at the Universidad Catolica Argentina (UCA), the school where Macri graduated as an engineer, showed that 7.6 million children and adolescents (58.7% of persons under 17) live in structural poverty. The study was released June 10; a year earlier, a similar study had gauged poverty for that group at 45.8% (NotiSur, June 17, 2016, and Nov. 18, 2016).
In the last two days of May, the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the country's capital, which is governed by Macri's own party, sponsored its second annual job fair, Expo Empleo Joven. The event--aimed at people between 18 and 29 years old who are either unemployed, seeking their first job, or interested in bettering their work situation--drew 150,000 job seekers. The marketing slogan was more than inviting: "Offering you opportunities to continue growing."
Fabian Pereyra, director of the event, explained that participating companies this year--which included JP Morgan, IBM, Exxon Mobil, Telecom, Unilever, McDonald's and HSBC--had 11,000 jobs to offer. "Last year, of the 3,000 job offerings, contracts were signed for 1,575," Pereyra said. "Should the same percentage prevail this year, we could say that 4% of the attendees, or some 6,500 persons, went home with jobs."
The youth unemployment rate in Argentina is almost triple the 8.5% rate for the general population. Unemployment tops 23.8% for 15-to-24-year-olds and climbs to 24.6% for 15-to-29-year-olds.
The country's three unions agree with CEPA's warning about the seriousness of increasingly limited options for young people, and like CEPA, they criticize the withdrawal of...
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