Argentina had 32,290 fewer registered employers in July than when Javier Milei took office at the end of 2023, according to data from the Superintendencia de Riesgos del Trabajo (SRT), the government agency that tracks companies with at least one worker enrolled in the workplace accident insurance system. The figures, released on Saturday (10), were reported by G1 and O Globo. The registry fell from 512,357 employers in November 2023 to 480,067 in July of this year, a drop of 6.3%.
July alone saw 948 fewer employers than June, the 18th consecutive monthly decline, and formal jobs fell by 3,485 in the same month. The SRT itself cautions that leaving the registry does not necessarily mean shutting down: a company may drop off the list because of a reorganization, a change in its tax identification or because it no longer has registered employees. Even so, Guido Zack, economics director at the Fundar think tank, told O Globo that one must go back to July 2007 to find so few companies in the country.
"Since the end of convertibility, there had never been such a persistent and intense process of reduction in the number of companies," Zack told O Globo, referring to the 1990s regime that pegged the peso to the dollar.
The current contraction is steeper than during the pandemic: between February 2020 and September 2021, the worst stretch of that period, the registry lost 21,405 employers (4.2%), compared with 6.3% now. Over the past 12 months the loss was 15,475 companies (-3.1%), and in 2026 alone there are 9,682 fewer, according to the same series.
Dollar-denominated costs and import competition
Business groups point to a combination of weak consumption and high costs. According to the Argentine Confederation of Medium-Sized Companies (CAME), rising utility bills and household debt leave families with less money for other purchases, and consumers have prioritized essential spending. The Argentine Industrial Union (UIA) cites energy costs, the tax burden and expensive credit as the main obstacles for small and mid-sized manufacturers. Zack adds that the stronger peso has raised costs in dollar terms and that logistics costs have climbed amid a lack of public works.
On the competition side, the Center for Argentine Political Economy (CEPA), a non-governmental research group, calculates that imports of consumer goods grew 34.7% in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period of 2023, after Milei's government lowered trade barriers, while Argentine industrial output fell 12% over that span. The situation unfolds alongside the deep public spending cuts Milei adopted to tame inflation. In July, commerce and industry shrank year on year while mining grew, according to G1.
The labor market reflects the contraction. Data from the Argentine social security system (SIPA) show a loss of 10,814 formal private-sector jobs in June compared with May, and 121,000 fewer posts over one year, with the total falling from 6.216 million to 6.096 million workers. Economic activity shrank 2.9% in July from June, according to Indec, the national statistics institute. For producers, the picture is one of dollarized costs and weak demand; for consumers, relief from inflation has come with tight budgets and fewer formal job options.