A recent report on the evolution of public employment in Argentina once again clearly exposes a trend that has set the course of economic policy over the past two decades.
The data in the chart, which come from the Ministry of Human Capital and organizations such as the IMF, reveal that, from 2003 to 2015, during the administrations of Néstor and Cristina Kirchner, public employment grew steadily, becoming a heavy burden on public finances.
This expansion, then presented as "labor inclusion," involved a significant increase in the number of salaried public employees per 1,000 inhabitants, many of whom were hired for political purposes.
The situation did not change substantially in the following years. During Mauricio Macri's administration (2016-2019), there was only relative stability or a slight decrease in the number of public sector workers, without a firm policy of cuts to reverse the inherited phenomenon.
However, the real critical point was reached between 2020 and 2023, under the administration of Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner. In that period, the upward trend became consolidated again, and public employment reached its highest level in recent history. The use of the state apparatus as a refuge for political activists and a mechanism for social containment resulted in a giant state, more expensive and less efficient.
