Weekly Report - 19 January 2012 (WR-12-03)

URUGUAY | One worrying statistic behind good figures. Uruguay registered the highest real salary growth in the region in 2011, the labour minister, Eduardo Brenta, boasted this week. He said that the government’s concerted effort to lift the minimum wage and progressive social policies had increased the purchasing power of poorer Uruguayans. Brenta made reference to Panorama Laboral, the annual employment review of the region by the International Labour Organization (ILO). He said that Uruguay came second only to Peru in the region for the highest rate of employment, but that the informal sector in Uruguay is much smaller than Peru (22% compared to 39%). He added that while 80% of rural workers lack social security benefits in most countries in the region, in Uruguay two-thirds of rural workers enjoy them. Brenta also claimed that female unemployment fell from 9.2% in 2010 to 7.8% last year, and that, in contrast to much of the region, youth unemployment fell from 20.8% in 2010 to 18.2% in 2011.

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