Surviving In Argentina As Crisis Causes Layoffs

Bruno Di Mauro spends his days in a tent in front of the laboratory where he used to work, hoping that one day it will resume its activities and give him back his livelihood.

Buenos Aires, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Oct, 2018 ) :Bruno Di Mauro spends his days in a tent in front of the laboratory where he used to work, hoping that one day it will resume its activities and give him back his livelihood.

"It's very distressing. Most of us went out looking for work but didn't find anything, and for those that did, it's precarious," says the 28-year-old former employee of Roux-Ocefa, a laboratory specializing in medicinal products and serum.

The laboratory was closed on October 1 after 83 years, leaving 420 workers jobless.

"Right now what's most urgent is eating. I have colleagues who've fallen into a deep depression, one died due to this depression, another committed suicide. I try to remain upbeat," added Di Mauro, who formed a workers' cooperative in the hope of relaunching the lab.

Argentine unemployment rose to almost 10 percent in the second quarter of 2018, up almost two percent from the end of 2017.

In the Buenos Aires metropolitan area, where a quarter of Argentina's 44 million population lives, that figure is 12.

4 percent.

In Rosario, Argentina's third city 300 kilometers (200 miles) north of the capital, unemployment is at almost 18 percent for the under-30s.

When Ricardo Barrionuevo published an advertisement on October 1 for 10 job openings at his pizzeria, he received 1,000 applicants.

Argentina is in the midst of an economic crisis brought on by a crash in confidence surrounding the Currency.

The peso has lost around half of its value against the Dollar this year, inflation is expected to end 2018 at 40 percent and interest rates are up at 70 percent.

Although the economy grew three percent in the first quarter, it is expected to shrink by 2.6 percent over the year.

Father of two Alex Cuello, 31, has become an odd-jobs man in order to survive.

"I do a bit of everything. Last year there were odd jobs every day but now I only get called once or twice a week on average. It's getting desperate," he said.