Argentina’s Women Left Behind in Post-Pandemic Jobs Recovery

(Bloomberg) -- As Argentina’s economy recovers from last year’s crash, young men who lost their jobs are being re-hired at a much faster pace than young women, according to a report published Tuesday by the Economy Ministry. 

A quarter of Argentine women under age 30 are currently unemployed, compared to 17% of young men. That gender jobless gap of 8 percentage points has quadrupled from 2 percentage points before the pandemic. 

Job destruction during the pandemic disproportionately affected service businesses, where women are more likely to be employed, while some male-dominated jobs in manufacturing and construction were protected by a ban on firing workers. 

“We’ve seen women set back two decades in the labor market,” Mercedes D’Alessandro, director of gender, equality and economy at Argentina’s Economy Ministry, said in a recent interview. “We’re seeing a recovery, but it’s slower for women and they have more obstacles.” 

D’Alessandro says the government aims to add more affordable childcare centers to help women get back into the labor market. 

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