Overview
- Official EPH data for the second quarter of 2026 show informal employment at a record 45% of occupied workers while the unemployment rate rose to 7.9%.
- Consultancy flow estimates indicate net employment growth was absorbed almost entirely by informal work, with about 348,000 added to informal jobs and roughly 83,000 formal salaried posts lost over the past year.
- Analytica finds informal self‑employed workers earn about 51% less than comparable registered employees, and a C‑P panel shows people who shifted from formal private jobs to self‑employment suffered a roughly 27.8% fall in real income.
- The deterioration is concentrated in industrial urban areas where activity has weakened and joblessness is higher, with Gran Rosario, Gran Córdoba and Mar del Plata reporting some of the nation’s steepest unemployment gaps.
- App‑based platform work has expanded rapidly — one mobility platform reports about 500,000 drivers and a 25% annual rise in supply since 2024 — but this buffer raises long‑term questions about earnings, social protection and falling tax revenue that independent estimates link to a renewed rise in poverty to about 15.1 million people.