Argentina Has Lost 31,342 Employers Under Milei, and Only Neuquén Grew
Key Facts
Argentina’s inflation has come down under President Javier Milei, and its currency has held. A count of companies that employ registered workers has gone the other way for nearly three years.
Fundar, an Argentine public-policy research group, counted 481,015 registered employer companies in June 2026. That is 31,342 fewer than in November 2023, the month before Milei took office, a fall of 6.1%.
Why This Matters
Javier Milei, a libertarian economist, became president in December 2023, after annual inflation had reached 211.4%. In April 2025 the IMF approved a US$20 billion programme, and the government lifted most currency controls days later.
His party, La Libertad Avanza, won the October 2025 midterm elections with over 40% of the vote. The next test is the presidential election on 24 October 2027, in which Milei can seek a second term.
Lower inflation and a steady peso are the government’s strongest arguments with voters and investors. The count of employers is one of the clearest measures of whether that stability reaches jobs.
For foreign readers, it also shows which parts of Argentina draw investment and which are shrinking. Energy-producing Neuquén is growing, while almost every other province is losing formal employers.
What Is Being Counted
The figures come from the SRT, the national work-risk regulator, which registers employers rather than all businesses. So this is a count of firms that employ at least one registered worker.
Sole traders, informal operators and companies with no payroll do not appear in it. That makes the number narrower than company closures, but more meaningful for employment.
A firm leaving this register has shut, stopped employing, or moved its workers off the books. Infobae, which reported the count, cited closures such as a textile maker that shut after 53 years.
The Shape of the Decline
The cumulative fall from November 2023 to June 2026 comes to 6.1%. Over the latest twelve months the register lost 16,386 firms, a fall of 3.3%.
Between May and June 2026 it lost 709 firms, or 0.15%. The pace has slowed but not stopped.
Fourteen of eighteen sectors are down over the year. Hospitality and food service have fared worst, the pattern of a squeeze on household spending.
The Two Sectors Going the Other Way
Oil and mining added 8.47% more employer firms over the period. Electricity and gas added 4.97%.
Those sectors are tied to Vaca Muerta, a giant shale oil and gas formation, and to the energy investment regime. Vaca Muerta’s main productive area lies in Neuquén Province, in northern Patagonia.
That is why Neuquén is the only province with more firms than in November 2023, up 1.6%. Twenty-three other provinces are down, so the recovery, where it exists, has an address.
How to Read the Start Date
November 2023 is the month before the current government took office. That makes it a clean baseline, though it also suits any framing built around the change of government.
Fundar is generally critical of the administration, and the framing reflects that. The underlying source is an official register, not a survey, so the count itself is not in dispute.
No government rebuttal of the figures had been published when this article went out. The government’s case rests instead on falling inflation and a stable currency.
The Recession Signal Behind It
A leading index from Torcuato Di Tella University, a private Buenos Aires university, put recession probability at 82% for August. That reading was 81% in July and 99% in January, so it has mostly fallen this year.
The index fell 0.27% in the month and 1.05% over twelve months, with three of ten components positive. It measures the probability of entering a contraction, not a finding that one has begun.
A formal recession requires six consecutive monthly declines in the official activity series. By that measure, the index alone does not show that Argentina is in recession.
What the Rest of the Data Says
Inflation was 1.7% in August, 33.5% over twelve months and 21.3% since December, INDEC, the statistics institute, reported. The official exchange rate was 1,509.1055 pesos per dollar on 16 September, on the central bank’s reference series.
The ceiling of the currency band sits at 1,900.87 pesos per dollar, leaving the peso well inside its band. That combination is the government’s case, with prices decelerating and the currency held.
The company register is the counter-case. Both are true at the same time.
The Poverty Number Everyone Is Waiting For
The most recent official poverty rate is 28.2%, for the second half of 2025, the lowest since early 2018. Figures of 31% or 32% now circulating are private estimates, not official statistics.
The next official release lands on 24 September 2026, covering the first half of this year. Until then, any figure above 28.2% attributed to INDEC is being misattributed.
What It Means If You Employ People There
The register is where formal employment lives, so its direction matters more than the company count suggests. For a business owner the signal is sectoral, with energy and mining adding payrolls and consumer services shedding them.
For workers, a firm leaving the register does not always mean a lost job. It can mean a job moved off the books, into the informal economy.
For investors, growth concentrated in one province is a narrow base for a national recovery. The number to watch next is the poverty release on 24 September, which measures the household side directly.
What Is Not Yet Known
How many departed firms closed, and how many merely stopped employing, has not been separated out. The government has not published its own reading of the same register.
Whether the slowing monthly pace marks a floor has not been established. The first-half poverty figure has not been released, and that is the open question of the next week.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does this matter?
Registered employers carry Argentina’s formal jobs. The fall shows that lower inflation under President Milei has not yet brought more employers outside energy.
How many companies has Argentina lost?
The register of employer companies fell by 31,342 between November 2023 and June 2026, a decline of 6.1%. The stock stood at 481,015 in June.
Is Argentina in recession?
Not formally. A leading index puts the probability of entering a contraction at 82% for August, down from 99% in January.
What is Argentina’s poverty rate?
The most recent official figure is 28.2%, for the second half of 2025. The first-half 2026 reading is due on 24 September.
Sources: Infobae, the Fundar count of lost employer firms, Infobae, the Di Tella recession index for August, INDEC, the August consumer price report, INDEC, the second-half 2025 poverty report, Chequeado, on the 28.2% poverty reading, Fundar, organisation profile, Buenos Aires Times, 2023 inflation of 211.4%, IMF, the US$20 billion extended arrangement, Wikipedia, economic reforms of Javier Milei, NPR, Milei’s midterm win, Wikipedia, the 2027 Argentine general election, Wikipedia, the Vaca Muerta formation, Wikipedia, Torcuato di Tella University
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error · Editorial responsibility: Matthias Camenzind, Editor-in-Chief
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