Eficiencia y ocupación en la Argentina

Abstract

The present article analyzes the influence over employment in Argentina, of a technological improvement from present to International levels. To this end, the technology of a leading country, as the United States - as its input-output matrix indicates - was resorted to. This model served as the basic tool for estimating the labour requirements that would result from meeting the Final Argentine Demand through the application to north- american technology. The difference between the result and existing employment is a examined on a sectoral basis and on an overall basis. On an overall level, a potential unemployment of 40% was found; business and other services sectors accounting for the highest percentage rate and agriculture for the next highest. In spite of the widespread belief to the contrary, the industrial sector shower the lowest labor surplus rate with respect to the requirements of a future technological change. One of the purposes of this article is to call attention to the existence of a significant problem of underlying unemployment, concealed by the generally low efficiency of the economy and which will be exposed with the introduction of improvements and technologies familiar to other parts of the world.