Télam in English | English news service

Télam. National News Agency of Argentina. August 28, 2009. Employment Minister, Carlos Tomada, said that "there is no circumstance that shows that full employment is not possible in Argentina", at the time he considered that the "the main element connected with the maintenance of certain level of poverty is linked to precarious employment".

"We did not discover poverty overnight, already in May 2003 we were saying there was a need to vigorously fight precarious and informal employment", said the Minister at the end of a dissertation at the "Capital Human 2009" seminar, which took place at a hotel in the City of Buenos Aires.

Along the same line, he added that "back then, we were next to having 50% unregistered work and we were coming from a stage of less restrictive legislation which generated this situation where there was may be an increase in employment but it was still absolutely informal and precarious".

"We parted away from this idea that unregistered work is something natural and normal, an idea which had become standard in Argentina, and we increased the control and fiscalization, simplified registration paperwork, provided benefits to small and medium sized companies (PyMEs for its Spanish initials) and that, along with growth, generated the first decrease in unregistered work in 25 years", he pointed out.

The minister explained that "at the end of the day, we strongly believe that everything we do towards the improvement of employment informality, to narrow down the number of these vulnerable groups such as rural workers and maid services" shall go towards "a more fair, more inclusive and more humane country". In addition to this, Tomada denied that "the virtuous circle of growth has finished in the country as some people say" as he considered that "clearly, the growth cycle needs to continue upholding these guidelines on which the productive process was based".

"Social inclusiveness is achieved through employment" and for this, it is "necessary to continue with the articulation of economic policies which are geared towards employment safe keeping", he said.

The Minister considered that "our country has every perspective of improvement in competitiveness and productivity through the “high quality", and he remarked on "the work carried out by the Government and the companies" at the time of "weathering the crisis without cutting down on human capital".

"The consequences of the international crisis were significant but they have been might lighter and minor that those experienced during all previous crisis, which were less important than we can currently appreciate", compared Tomada.

He further explained that "the drop in formal employment has been very moderate  in comparison with other countries such as Great Britain and the USA where the rate of unemployment has grown by more than 40%, while in Argentina  we have registered lower rates which allow us to be optimistic", declared  the minister.