Factory Job Losses Undercut Macri's Pro-Trade Talk in Argentina
Factory Job Losses Undercut Macri's Pro-Trade Talk in Argentina
5 hours ago (Mar 28, 2019 04:20PM ET)
(Bloomberg) -- Argentine factories are shedding more jobs in the country’s recession than any other sector, testing President Mauricio Macri’s pro-trade pledges just months before he faces re-election.
Manufacturers eliminated 62,000 posts between this January and last, according to government numbers published Thursday. That amounts to almost half the total number of jobs shed by the entire private sector in that period, and compares to 42,000 positions lost in retail, the second-worst hit industry.
Macri swept to power in 2015 with overtures to businesses, arguing that opening up the economy would attract more investment and better jobs while reducing poverty. Since then, he has disappointed local industries by failing to implement labor and tax reforms that executives deemed essential to better compete globally. Add to that plummeting demand and the world’s highest interest rate, and now many manufacturers want tariffs to stay in place.
Argentina saw a surge in imports in 2017 before a currency crisis sunk the country into its second recession in three years. When put together, many manufacturers couldn’t keep up.
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