Informality continues to rise in Argentina. As confirmed by Indec, The percentage of people working “black” reached 43% of the employed population in the fourth quarter of 2025while in the same period of 2024 that number was 42%. When Javier Milei took office it was at 41.4%.
It must be taken into account that the statistical agency’s measurement was carried out in 31 agglomerations that comprise the Permanent Household Survey (EPH), which takes into consideration 13.5 million employed people – equivalent to an employment rate of 45%. In these 31 agglomerations, informality covers 5.8 million informal workers, but projected to the total population it would reach 9 million people.
In a labor market context in which unemployment does not skyrocket, but neither does it decrease considerably, Informal employment began to gain more and more prominence, both among wage earners and the self-employed.
So, Informality among those who have a salary reached 36.3% in the fourth quarter of 2025, just above the 36.1% in the same period of the previous year. Meanwhile, among the self-employed, informality rose a little more in that period: it went from 62.4% to 63.3%.
Economist Santiago Casas, from EcoAnalytics, commented that, although the informality figure for the fourth quarter of 2025 represents an improvement of 0.3 percentage points compared to the previous quarter, “The average informality in 2025 was 42.9%, that is, 1.1 percentage points above the 41.8% registered in 2024, a year marked by the Government’s strong initial adjustment.”
Furthermore, Casas pointed out that “for now, the economic recovery is not reaching quality employment.” And he added: “Data on the situation and evolution of registered work show that, beyond informality, the quality of formal employment deteriorated at the end of the year”.
The Indec also indicated that Of this total of informal workers, 44.5% are women and 41.8% are men.. In addition, he specified that among those up to 29 years old, informality reaches 58.4%; from 30 to 64, to 37.6%, and from 65 years and older, to 58%. In the same way, it was detailed that, by branch of activity, The greatest informality occurs in domestic service (79%), followed by construction (73.8%).. With lower percentages, meanwhile, are Hotels and Restaurants (59.7%), Commerce (52.6%), Social Services and Health (20.8%) and Education (14%).
