Employmentweb_low

EmploymEnT, woRk, and hEalTh inEqualiTiEs - a global perspective
groups of foreign workers. In 2006, for example, a fire in a sewing
workshop led to the death of a woman (aged 25) and 5 children (aged
3-15), all illegal Bolivian immigrants (Comunidad Boliviana, 2008).
at the end of 2006, the unemployment rate was 8.7 per cent, with
considerable variations between regions (from 9% in the most
disadvantaged areas to 4.1% in Cuyo), between sexes (9.9% among
women, 5.8% among men), and between age groups (unemployment
among young people is 3.6 times higher than among people aged over
25 years) (InDEC, 2006a). moreover, young people situated in the
poorest quintile of the population have 3.5 times the probability of being
unemployed, compared to the most advantaged quintile (Ilo, 2007).
The proportion of wage-earners is 76.6 per cent, with
considerable job precariousness: 39 per cent of workers had no
social burden, and 33 per cent have no social security coverage.
moreover, 17 per cent of wage-earners report having fixed-term
contracts, while 8.8 per cent do not know when their job contract will
expire, and consequently 26 per cent of wage-earners may be
considered to have unstable jobs. In regard to duration, 15.2 per cent
of contracts are of less than 1 month, 19.8 per cent less than 3
months, and 12.6 per cent are for less than 6 months (InDEC, 2006a).
seventy-five per cent of temporary workers have no social security.
another indicator of the low quality of employment is that 11 per cent
of wage-earners have more than one job, and one third of employees
work over 45 hours a week (InDEC, 2006a). It is estimated that 11 per
cent of wage-earners live in poverty (Beccaria, groisman, &
monsalvo, 2006). In 2003, 60 per cent of people earning the minimum
wage belonged to a poor household (by 2005 this figure had fallen to
17 per cent) and 44 per cent of workers earning under the minimum
wage were from poor households (marshall, 2006).
Informal employment constitutes an important problem in the
argentinean labour market, the number of non-registered workers
having been estimated at around 5 million (44% of all employed
persons, rising to over 50% of employees in the poorest
geographical regions). Informal workers receive wages that are
between 40 and 45 per cent lower than formally employed workers
(Beccaria et al., 2006); whereas in the formal economy, women
receive wages that are 30 per cent lower than their male
counterparts, this gender-gap is even wider in the informal
economy, where their wages can be as much as 40 per cent lower
(ministerio de Trabajo, Empleo y seguridad social, 2006).
In 2001, 6.6 per cent of adolescents (13-17 years of age) either
had a job or were seeking one (InDEC, 2001). although there are no
precise data on child labour, it is estimated that in 2004, 16.6 per
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