Argentina had 480,067 employers with registered workers in July 2026, the lowest count since 2007, as declines reached nearly every jurisdiction during President Javier Milei’s tenure, research foundation Fundar found.
The total was 32,290, or 6.3%, below its November 2023 level, the month before Milei took office. It fell by 948 from June, marking an 18th consecutive monthly decline. Compared with July 2025, the count was down 15,475, or 3.1%.
Fundar said the drop over the first 32 months of Milei’s presidency was the largest for an equivalent period among the administrations it examined. Changes over the comparable periods for three earlier presidents ranged from a 2.2% decline to a 4.1% increase.
The decline reached 14 of the 18 sectors in Fundar’s comparison, which excludes public administration and extraterritorial organizations, and 23 of the 24 jurisdictions in its comparison. Transportation and storage had 7,043 fewer registered employers than in November 2023, a 17.84% decrease. Neuquén was the sole jurisdiction with an increase, at 1.1%.
Fundar based its analysis on records from the Superintendencia de Riesgos del Trabajo (SRT), Argentina’s workplace safety agency. The count includes people and organizations in the public and private sectors with at least one declared worker, but excludes household employers.
The SRT cautions that a lower employer count cannot be treated as a count of business closures. Reorganizations, registration changes and shifts in staffing can also affect the total. In a separate comparison covering December 2023 through December 2025, employers with one to five workers accounted for about 87% of the decline, the agency said.
Fundar economics director Guido Zack linked the pressure on firms to weak domestic demand, taxes, infrastructure shortcomings, financing costs and high costs measured in dollars, the Buenos Aires Times reported. The SRT is scheduled to publish its July breakdown by employer size on Oct. 22.
