The government dismantled every support mechanism for local producers
Industrial production fell 10% in 2024 with 15 of 16 sectors contracting; first half 2025 shows continued decline of 1.6%. Over 130,000 jobs lost since November 2023 across manufacturing, mining, and construction sectors; real wages have fallen below November 2023 levels.
- Industrial production fell 10% in 2024; 15 of 16 sectors contracted
- Over 130,000 jobs lost since November 2023 across manufacturing, mining, construction
- Real industrial wages fell below November 2023 levels after December 2023 devaluation
- 1,482 manufacturing firms and 1,669 construction companies closed since late 2023
- 37 unions released report titled 'Nothing to Celebrate' on Industry Day
37 Argentine industrial unions released a scathing report warning of 10% production decline, 130,000+ job losses, and collapsing real wages under current government policies favoring finance over manufacturing.
On the eve of Argentina's Industry Day, thirty-seven labor organizations gathered to deliver a verdict that offered little cause for celebration. The unions, which together represent the country's industrial workforce through the Confederation of Unions of the Argentine Republic, released a document titled "Nothing to Celebrate"—a stark assessment of what they describe as the systematic dismantling of the nation's manufacturing base.
The numbers tell a story of contraction across nearly every sector. Industrial production fell ten percent in 2024, with fifteen of the sixteen major manufacturing branches shrinking. The first half of 2025 brought no relief: output dropped another 1.6 percent compared to December 2024, and nine sectors remain below where they stood at the end of 2023. The unions argue this is no accident but the direct result of government policies that have prioritized financial markets over productive work—unrestricted imports, the elimination of industrial incentive programs, currency misalignment, mass layoffs, wage cuts, and caps on collective bargaining negotiations.
The human toll has been severe. Between November 2023 and May 2025, the manufacturing sector shed 33,183 jobs. Mining and construction lost another 97,130 positions. In total, more than 130,000 workers across these industries have been displaced. When a factory closes or a production line shuts down, the damage extends far beyond those with direct employment contracts. Suppliers, logistics providers, and complementary service sectors all feel the shock. What emerges in place of quality industrial work is a landscape of precarious, low-wage employment that deepens social fragility and weakens the productive fabric of the country.
Wages have collapsed alongside employment. After the sharp devaluation of December 2023, real industrial salaries plummeted and have not recovered. Workers in the sector today earn less in real terms than they did in November 2023, even as the cost of living has continued to rise. The unions note that 1,482 manufacturing firms and 1,669 construction companies have closed since late 2023, erasing not just jobs but entire enterprises and the expertise they contained.
The unions identify what they call a "lethal combination": trade opening paired with currency overvaluation. While the government has aggressively reduced tariffs and opened borders to imports, it has implemented no corresponding relief for domestic producers—no tax breaks, no credit programs, no technical or scientific support. Industrial support mechanisms have been dismantled entirely. Hydrocarbon and mining sectors show some dynamism, but the government's incentive regime for large investments has primarily benefited foreign companies importing materials and labor, doing little to build local productive capacity or generate value within Argentina itself.
The unions draw a sharp distinction between how the government has treated different parts of the economy. Public budgets have been slashed in health, education, science, and infrastructure to achieve fiscal surpluses. Meanwhile, financial speculators have grown wealthier. Workers and retirees see their incomes shrink while those betting on currency movements and debt instruments multiply their gains. The unions argue that Argentina's debt burden, now managed again under International Monetary Fund oversight, has locked the country into a cycle of austerity, recession, and what they term "industrial homicide."
The document concludes with a warning framed as a choice. The unions, alongside national universities and legislators, are demanding active policies to rebuild industrial capacity. Without urgent intervention, they argue, the consequences will be catastrophic: more factory closures, more job losses, and the permanent erosion of productive capabilities that would take decades to restore. The question, as they frame it, is whether Argentina will chart a course toward recovery or continue down a path that prioritizes financial adjustment over the needs of working people and the nation's productive future.
Notable Quotes
There is nothing to celebrate when policies of indiscriminate import opening, dismantled incentive programs, currency misalignment, layoffs, wage cuts, and wage negotiation caps are hammering factories and their workers.— Confederation of Unions of the Argentine Republic (Csira)
The government has become a great promoter of industrial work for the rest of the world while punishing our industrial workers.— Csira statement
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why did these unions choose Industry Day specifically to release this report?
It's the one moment when the state is supposed to celebrate manufacturing and the people who work in it. By releasing a document called "Nothing to Celebrate" on that exact day, they're forcing a confrontation with the gap between what the government claims to value and what its policies actually do.
The numbers are staggering—130,000 jobs lost in less than two years. But you also mention that 1,482 manufacturing firms closed. Why does that matter as much as the job count?
Because a closed factory isn't just a number. It's the loss of accumulated knowledge, relationships with suppliers, technical expertise that took years to build. When a firm disappears, you don't just lose the workers—you lose the possibility of rehiring them later. The productive capacity is gone.
The unions say the government has been an "impulsor" of foreign industrial work while punishing domestic workers. That's a pretty direct accusation. What evidence supports it?
The asymmetry is the evidence. The government cut tariffs, reduced import taxes, and created incentive regimes for large foreign investors—especially in oil and mining. But it eliminated every support program for local manufacturers: no tax relief, no credit lines, no technical assistance. It's not that they did nothing; they actively chose one side.
Real wages fell below November 2023 levels. That's after the big devaluation. So workers lost purchasing power twice—once from the currency shock, and then again because their wages didn't keep up?
Exactly. The devaluation was brutal, but at least it was a one-time event. What's happened since is that wages have stagnated while inflation continues. So every month, a worker's salary buys less. And the government capped wage negotiations, so there's no mechanism for workers to catch up.
The unions mention the IMF again. Is this about blaming external pressure, or is there something specific about the current arrangement?
It's not scapegoating. The IMF programs come with conditions—fiscal surpluses, reduced public spending, currency stability. Those conditions force choices about where to cut. Argentina chose to cut health, education, infrastructure. It could have chosen differently, but the IMF framework narrows the options. The unions are saying that cycle—debt, austerity, recession—is what destroyed industry before, and it's happening again.