The sum of the unemployed, the employed seeking another job, and the underemployed reached 30.0% of the economically active population, above the 28.7% of the previous quarter. The official report also made it clear that the impact was stronger among young people. At the same time, underemployment remained at 11.3%, while employed job seekers reached 16.5%. Simultaneously, the employment rate stood at 45.0% and the activity rate at 48.6%, with no significant changes, which shows that the deterioration was not due to a greater incorporation of people into the market, but by a direct increase in unemployment. Behind the percentage lies a harsher social picture. In the 14-29 age group, the unemployment rate increased by 3.0 percentage points for women and 3.7 points for men in the year-on-year comparison, while in the central ages of 30-64, the rates remained relatively stable. In the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, the report registered 790 thousand underemployed and 227 thousand employed job seekers; in the Greater Buenos Aires area, in turn, it counted 604 thousand underemployed and 1,050 million employed seeking another job. Another data point that deepens concern is the quality of employment. This dynamic confirms a already known trend in the Argentine economy: when the labor market cools, the first to feel it more intensely are usually the youngest, especially those who have not yet managed to stabilize their insertion. Geographically, the problem was once again concentrated in the Greater Buenos Aires area, which registered the highest regional unemployment rate at 8.6%, followed by the Pampean region with 7.7% and the Northeast with 5.6%. Among the 31 urban agglomerations surveyed by the body, the unemployed population reached around 1.093 million people, out of a universe of 13.503 million employed and 14.596 million economically active people. Although the INDEC report indicated that the occupational structure showed no significant changes in the quarter, various private analyses emphasized that informality was around 43% of total employed and that the deterioration has been cushioned by more precarious employment, more self-employment, and weaker wages. LCG stated that labor indicators showed a general worsening compared to a year ago and also compared to the previous quarter, and warned that the adjustment 'continues to be through quality and price', with a greater weight of non-salaried work, more over-employment, and a persistent decline in formal employment since mid-2025. In this context, the end of 2025 left an uncomfortable picture for the official narrative. With activity and employment practically stable, but with more people out of work, more pressure on the market, and still very high informality, the INDEC data showed that the recovery failed to turn into sustained relief for a significant portion of the population. At the other extreme, the Northeast showed the lowest rate, with 4.2%, followed by Patagonia with 4.8% and Cuyo with 4.9%. Among the agglomerations, Gran La Plata, Mar del Plata, and Río Gallegos stood out with an unemployment rate of 9.5%. Buenos Aires, March 19, 2026 - Total News Agency - TNA - Unemployment rose again in Argentina and closed 2025 at 7.5%, according to INDEC, a figure that broke the improvement seen in the middle of last year and turned on a yellow light again on the labor market. The Argentine labor market, once again, shows that it is not enough to generate economic movement: the underlying challenge continues to be to generate formal, stable, and better-quality employment. The figure marked an increase of 1.1 percentage points compared to the fourth quarter of 2024, when it was 6.4%, and also an increase of 0.9 points compared to the third quarter of 2025, which had closed at 6.6%.
