Labor market trends in a low and heterogeneous productivity country. Evidence from Argentina’s manufacturing

Abstract

During Substitution Industrialization (1930-1975), wages rose, and unemployment and poverty were low. During the “neoliberal process” (1976-2002) the liberalization of the goods and financial markets resulted in the regression of the productive structure, high unemployment and the decline of real wages. Finally, since the collapse of 2002, Argentina has had enormous success in terms of unemployment, with limited achievements in wages or poverty. This paper tries to answer why Argentina faces difficulties to return to past labor market figures highlighting the process of capital differentiation and the new international division of labor.

Capital Accumulation, the Role of the State and Human Rights in Argentina: Contributions for debates on economic and social right

“…In 1975 the country was struck first by a hyperinflation (known as "Rodrigazo") and the next year by the bloody military dictatorship, which led to yet another abrupt drop in salary (a fall amounting to 40%). Since then a large tendency towards worsening living conditions, segmentation, and fragmentation of the working class sprang, through a process of labor market precariousness (Bertranou et al 2013, Kornblihtt et al 2014, Cazón et al 2017, Graña 2018). This has been expressed in unemployment (especially under the crises), underemployment and outsourcing in their different ways (Basualdo and Morales 2014) 4 and a general drop in wages.…”