Argentina’s registered private-sector payrolls shrank for a 14th straight month in July, falling by about 13,000 jobs, or 0.2%, to 6.08 million, according to the Labor Secretariat’s latest report on social-security records.
That is 134,500 fewer registered private employees than in July 2025, a drop of 2.2%, and about 160,000 fewer than when the decline began in June 2025, the secretariat’s monthly review of registered work says. Counting public employees and the self-employed as well, registered workers were down 1.1% on the year, or 136,500 people.
A registered job is one declared to the social-security system (SIPA), which means pension contributions, health coverage and legal protections. Most of the loss is concentrated in a few sectors. Over the year, manufacturing employment fell 4.4%, finance 4.8%, commerce 3.4% and transport and communications 2.4%. In July alone, construction lost the most (0.6%). Only Neuquén, Río Negro and San Juan added registered private jobs over the year, while Tierra del Fuego lost more than 12%.
The report comes with a softer signal. A separate Labor Secretariat survey of firms with ten or more workers in the main urban areas found private employment flat in August for the second month, after five monthly declines. The secretariat attributes the lack of net job creation to low hiring rather than layoffs: companies are avoiding dismissals but not replacing departures. It also estimates that the average real wage in registered private jobs rose 1.3% in August, a provisional figure.
The numbers land as the economy weakens. INDEC figures show activity fell 2.9% month on month in July, and the World Bank cut its 2026 growth forecast for Argentina to 2.1% from 3.6% in June. INDEC, the national statistics agency, reported last month that unemployment rose to 7.9% in the second quarter and that informal work hit an 18-year high.
Company closures are shedding fewer jobs than before. The secretariat’s data show closures destroyed 42,381 jobs in the first quarter, down from 49,365 in the fourth quarter of 2025, because the firms that shut were smaller.