Unemployment reached 6.2% in the second quarter of 2023, according to a report by the National Institute for Statistics and Census (INDEC) released on Wednesday.
The number is lower than in the first quarter (6.9%) but the report showed a jump in the number of people who are currently employed and searching for a job (from 14.8% to 16.2%).
According to the INDEC, economic activity fell in the same period, both in comparison to the first three months of the year (-2.8%) and to the second quarter of 2022 (-4.9%). The fall is mainly due to a slump in exports, caused in turn by the historic drought’s effect on soy production.
The INDEC measures unemployment by surveying a cross-section of urban centers — 29.4 million people — and measures the percentage of unemployed people who are actively looking for a job compared to the total economically active population (14 million).
This latest report from the INDEC comes after inflation reached a 32-year high in August, with the institute announcing that it would begin publishing inflation figures weekly as a result.
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