The lack of work tightens in the stomach and in the social humor of the Argentines

Fatima, Stéfani and Carlos Alberto go every day to a popular dining room in La Boca, a traditional neighborhood in Buenos Aires. When everything closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, they had to stop working and now they see helplessly as inflation devours the little money they produce.

“I have been coming to the dining room for five months. I’ve never had a need before. I always had a job and earned well, but not anymore after the pandemic. Every day I send a resume, nobody calls me”Says Stéfani Chinguel, 23 years old.

In a container, this young woman takes two lunches: one for her and the other for her partner, who does have a formal job in a store but with a salary that is not enough for them.

“Sometimes my boyfriend’s salary is increased, but 1,000 pesos (US $ 9) does not go in line with the price increase”, Which this year accumulates 41.8% and is one of the highest in the world.

Among the jobs she did since she was 18 years old, Stéfani cared for the elderly and sold cars.

Now he goes to the dining room not only to look for food but also the opportunity to be given a job in the kitchen, which is rewarded with a state subsidy equivalent to half the minimum wage of 32,000 pesos per month (US $ 300 at the official exchange rate ).

“Many people want to work here, but there is no space”, Launches Edith Cusipaucar (40), mother of six children, who for years has been in the dining room.

This woman also receives 15,000 pesos a month (US $ 145) from the State as an allowance for her three youngest children. But every night he goes out to sell food at a street stall. “Do you think that with a salary of 15,400 pesos you can support a family?” He asks.

In La Boca and in other disadvantaged neighborhoods of the Argentine capital such as Bajo Flores, dining rooms have sprung up almost on every corner, which are run by social movements with the help of the State. Most of them occupy small premises and deliver food to take away.

Informal work, salary reduction

Fátima Gómez works in a maintenance company and, although she did not lose her job, during the quarantine in 2020, and also afterwards, she found that there were no offices to clean.

Consequently, her salary was cut practically in half and for the first time in her life she went to look for lunch at a popular dining room, where they gave her, her three children and her granddaughter.

“I work to survive. If I don’t pick up the food, we won’t make ends meet. It is not enough. Able to eat at noon and not at night”, Explains this woman who lives in a“conventillo”(Pension) for 20 years.

Carlos Alberto Álvarez, 61, is a street vendor, but says that even that cannot be done now. “In the street, the policemen run us off. They don’t let us work ”.

“I come out of need, out of hunger. There is no work, that’s why we come to get food”, he says.

The unemployment rate in Argentina was 9.6% in the second quarter of this year, while underemployment reached 12.4%. The poverty rate is 40.6%.

Social moodiness

“The pandemic accelerated processes that were already taking place in the world, where there was more and more informal work and unrecognized work. When from one day to the next the movement of people slows down and, consequently, the economy, a system is exposed that was not prepared to include all people”, Highlights Ezequiel Barbenza, professor at the Universidad del Salvador.

During the 2020 quarantine, the State offered exceptional assistance for informal workers, affected by the economic stoppage.

“It was intended for 3 million people, 12 million were signed up and it was awarded to 9 million. Showed a huge universe”, Points out Barbenza.

Lack of employment is, along with inflation and personal insecurity, the issue that most worries Argentines, according to political scientist Diego Reynoso, in charge of a public opinion poll at the University of San Andrés.

“It generates a lot of uncertainty for people and a great discomfort. There is a society that is very anguished, angry, dissatisfied, with a fatal humor, which channels it towards the government”, Says this analyst before the mid-term parliamentary elections this Sunday, in which the ruling coalition Frente de Todos runs the risk of losing the majority in the Senate.