Employmentweb_low

labour Markets and welfare states: a country perspective
aged over 65 years, and 59% are women (Instituto nacional de Estadística
y Censos [InDEC], 2001). around 600,000 people belong to one of the more
than 30 different ethnic groups (InDEC, 2005), while 4.2 per cent of the
inhabitants are foreigners: paraguayan (21.2%), Bolivian (15.2%), Italian
(14.1%), Chilean (13.8%) and spanish (9%) (InDEC, 2001).
During the decade of the 90s, argentina suffered under the
neoliberal policies promoted by the Imf and World Bank, which after
two years of continuous economic recession finally led to an
enormous social crisis in 2001. for example, in 2002 unemployment
(21.5%) and poverty (54.3%) were the highest in the country's history.
a period of sustained economic growth began in 2003, which has
slowly improved the most extreme social situations, although a
regressive taxation model still persists, lacking appropriate
redistributive social policies to address the huge social inequalities.
By 2007, 27 per cent of the population was still living in poverty and
almost 9 per cent did not have sufficient income to cover the cost of
a basic weekly grocery basket (InDEC, 2006a). The distribution of
poverty is highly unequal across the country: 46 per cent in the
northern provinces, 25 per cent in the peripheral urban areas of
Buenos aires, and 33 per cent in the rest.
The rate of active employment among people aged over 14 years
was 46 per cent in 2006, with considerable differences between
sexes (45% in women, 70% in men) (InDEC, 2006a). The distribution
of employments places 1.2 per cent in primary production, 14 per
cent in manufacturing industries, 69.7 per cent in the services sector
and 8.8 per cent in the construction industry (InDEC, 2006a).
Important manufacturing industries include automobiles and
transport equipment (InDEC, 2006b), while commerce (20%) and
financial services (10%) stand out in the services sector (InDEC,
2006b). finally, the construction industry has grown since 2003 and
by the end of 2007 rates of employment had doubled those of the 90s
(InDEC, 2008).
In argentina, 325,000 people born in neighbouring countries aged
over 14 years work in the services sector (44.8%), in domestic
services (21%), construction (16.8%), industry (14.3%), and
agriculture (2.2%) (InDEC, 2003). Insertion rates of paraguayans are
highest in construction (30%), while Bolivians are predominantly
employed in the services (47%) and industrial sectors (20%,
particularly the textile industry), and Chileans are found mainly in
services (46%) (InDEC, 2003), although there are no reliable data on
their unemployment rates, access to benefits, accident rates, etc.
similarly, no reliable information exists about slavery, although
various organisations have denounced these practices among
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