Employment Formalization in Argentina: Recurring and New Challenges for Public Policies

This article analyzes employment formalization in Argentina from 2003 to 2014 as well as the public policies associated with that process. It identifies the critical segments of informality along with the challenges they pose to a strategy aimed at reducing informality in a labor market that has proven relatively resistant to such reductions in recent years. The results show a decrease in informality for salaried employment, though there has not been a similar decrease among the self-employed. After a significant drop in non-registered salaried employment between 2003 and 2008, slower formal employment growth has offset advances in formalization. Informality affects nearly 44% of all employed individuals. The need to develop specific actions as part of a comprehensive strategy is due to the characteristics of the critical segments of the labor market and the persistence of a heterogeneous productive structure. It can also be attributed to a lower and more volatile rate of economic growth in recent years. In this context, the measures included in the "Law for the Promotion of Registered Employment and Labor Fraud Prevention” passed in 2014 are likely not only to improve working and employment conditions but also to increase productivity. However, in order for these tools to have a true impact on employment formalization, they must be accompanied by other productive, fiscal, social and labor policies, along with a macroeconomic framework that ensures stable economic growth.