Since the government took office, 30 businesses and 416 jobs have been lost per day. Stagnant wages and layoffs. There are 2,000 fewer businesses in the territory of Santa Fe than in December 2023.
Since Javier Milei took office, a mere year and a half of libertarian management has destroyed 253,728 registered private sector jobs and pushed 18,083 companies to close. The economic policy, based on finance, caused the collapse of the productive and labour framework in a short period of time, while benefiting very narrow sectors that generated extraordinary profits.
In the last year and a half, the catastrophic figures indicate that per day, 30 companies and 416 private jobs were lost. The data comes from a report by the Argentine Center for Political Economy (CEPA), based on official documents published by the Superintendence of Labour Risk, for the period November 2023 to July 2025.
BY SECTOR
“The austerity measures, recession, and halting of public works had a direct impact,” the study states. After a brief recovery in mid-2024, the deterioration worsened during this year.
The report reveals that, in terms of companies, those in Transport and Storage were the hardest hit: 4,468 employers left the social security register, meaning they closed down.
They were followed by Retail and Wholesale Trade (-3,131), Real Estate Services (-2,829), Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (-1,952), and Construction (-1,737).
So far in 2025, the number of registered employers fell from 499,682 in December 2024 to 494,274 in July 2025. This results in 5,408 fewer companies. In the same period, registered workers fell from 9,647,751 to 9,603,445, representing 44,306 fewer jobs.
REDUNDANCIES
Construction saw the largest loss of jobs: 83,803 fewer workers, out of the total of 253,728. This was followed by Public Administration (-75,435), Transport and Storage (-55,259), Manufacturing Industry (-49,738), and Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (-16,256).
Large companies implemented the highest number of redundancies: 65.6 per cent—166,538 in total—correspond to firms with more than 500 workers, while smaller companies account for the remaining 34.4 per cent—87,190 jobs.
In relative terms, therefore, large companies reduced their payrolls by 3.5 per cent, while SMEs and smaller firms cut them by 1.7 per cent. The main causes include dismissals, voluntary departures, and layoffs.
COLLAPSE
The sharp contraction in local consumer demand, even for basic products like food, clothing, and medicine—a consequence of the collapse in the purchasing power of wages—sooner or later generates unemployment.
To this tragic mix, Milei added total import liberalisation: ‘buy cheap, buy twice’, as the saying goes. With the almost unrestricted entry of foreign products, there is first a shopping boom because the goods are accessible or novel, but immediately the impact on the real economy limits that purchasing power through the destruction of production and work.
“The analysis reveals a marked regression in key formal employment indicators, with significant falls in both the number of employers and the volume of registered jobs,” CEPA concludes.
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN SANTA FE?
Meanwhile, in the province of Santa Fe, between December 2023 and July of this year, 2,120 businesses closed, according to data from the national Superintendence of Labour Risk. “That’s three and a half per day on average for 20 consecutive months. This represents 10% of what is happening nationally and is further evidence that the crisis is hitting productive provinces the hardest,” said provincial legislator and president of the Legislative Labour Affairs Committee, Joaquín Blanco.
In December 2023, there were 50,774 productive units in Santa Fe. By July 2025, there were 48,654. That is 2,120 fewer in 20 months, a 4% drop in nearly two years. “This perfectly illustrates what we have been saying: the National Government’s model offers no way out. Companies are closing their doors, people are losing their jobs, and a large number of workers are increasingly turning to seeking a second job to make ends meet,” explained the socialist politician in the context of the reports on activity and employment that have been prepared by his committee.
Nationally, the average number is 30 closures per day (18,624 productive units closed their doors between December 2023 and July 2025 across the country). “Santa Fe accounts for almost 12% of what is happening in the entire country, behind the City of Buenos Aires, Córdoba, and Buenos Aires Province,” he detailed. In Buenos Aires Province, in the same period, 4,896 businesses closed (an average of almost eight per day) and in Córdoba, 2,848 (almost five per day). Meanwhile, in the City of Buenos Aires, 2,409 productive units closed.
Regarding the hardest-hit sector in Santa Fe, it was Transport and Storage Services with 906 fewer productive units, followed by the Manufacturing Industry with 243, Agriculture and Livestock with 203, and Construction with 162.
Considering registered workers, in December 2023 there were 635,433 and in July 2025 there were 620,305: 15,128 fewer. The sector where this decline had the most impact was the Manufacturing Industry, which lost 6,965 jobs, followed by Construction with 2,493 employees, and Transport and Storage Services with 2,249.
The report also breaks down what is happening with Private Household Services: in that sector, 3,378 workers and 2,690 employers were lost. “This often does not mean they lost their jobs, but rather that their employers stopped paying their contributions, meaning they moved into informality. One of the hallmarks of this economic model is the deepening of labour precariousness, and it impacts the most vulnerable,” stated the deputy.
“Milei and Caputo’s proposal is exhausted. They propose a country without SMEs, with workers submerged in informality, with financial speculation and begging for help from international markets. It is a model that hits productive provinces like ours hard,” Blanco concluded.