The COVID-19 pandemic hit when Argentina was struggling with historical macroeconomic imbalances and rising poverty. It accelerated a two-year economic contraction, leading to a deep fall in GDP in 2020 of 9.9 percent.

Recovery during 2021 was solid but heterogeneous across sectors. GDP is expected to reach its pre-pandemic level by the end of 2022. A year and a half into the pandemic, 23.5 percent of workers had lost their pre-pandemic job: 17.1 percent of pre-pandemic workers left the labor force altogether, and 6.4 percent became unemployed. The impact of job losses was more frequent for women, youth (ages 18- 25), the elderly (age 65+), and workers with lower education levels. Indeed, 32.3 percent of female workers reported having lost their job, and three-quarters of them left the labor market altogether.

This labor force departure was accompanied by a transition of 33.1 percent of those previously inactive into activity. Among the new active, 42.8 percent were women and 34.9 percent were men with primary or secondary education. Most of the new active (61.7 percent) were able to secure a job, mostly informal, at the time of the survey. In mid2021, they represented 8.9 percent of the employed and 41.2 percent of the unemployed.