However, they find that there is a problem that puts the sector in check: the flight of talent to the informal market, that is, employees who stop working in companies to become freelancers and sell their services abroad, because the payment to the blue exchange rate can be up to three times higher than local wages. A year ago they took the problem to the Government and for the first time they put a number on the “virtual brain drain.”
They estimate that there are more than 200 thousand people who work in a “blue” way, without being registered, with service exports that never reach the formal system, calculated at more than US $ 2,000 million per year. The battle to “whitewash” freelancers finds entrepreneurs divided on one side, along with the Ministry of Economy and Productive Development, and on the opposite side, the Central Bank.
Brain drain
Exports in the knowledge economy grew 14% year-on-year in 2021, to US$6,442 million, but they estimate that it might have reached US$8,242 million per year, if exports from the “informal market” were counted, estimated at US$1,800 million for 2021. For 2022, they estimate that foreign sales will exceed US$2.4 billion. “The data is conservative, the leakage value is incremental, I hope there is some policy that can defend us,” said Luis Galeazzi, director of Argencon, in a virtual conference in which Ámbito participated.
Regarding employment in the sector, the number of registered workers is 454 thousand, although they estimate that there is an additional 50% with one foot in the informal sector. The businessmen did not make the estimate, but they consider that it might be more than 200 thousand. “More than two thirds of those who quit their companies go to the informal market”, Galeazzi assured.
They see it on a day-to-day basis: although the knowledge economy tends to have full employment in many countries, which implies a turnover rate of around 20% in search of better working conditions, in Argentina that figure is twice as high, which which implies that a company has to totally renew its endowment in 3 years, according to the report.
The fight for laundering
More than a year ago Argencon took this problem to the Government. The diagnosis of the causes is shared. “The informal market pays more than $190 in dollars, without taxes. Companies settle at $110 and pay 50% of social charges, the brain drain is created by the exchange rate gap”, described Sebastián Mocorrea, from Argencon. With an exchange rate gap of more than 60% two years ago, businessmen agreed with the Ministry of Economy and Productive Development in a “temporary” solution to close the gap.
“The treatment of this was either the evader chase, so to speak, or while the macro is resolved, which companies might access free dollars from part of their exports, and that can be used exclusively to pay salaries, depositing workers directly in dollars, to be able to pay for talent and not be tempted to go to the informal market,” Galeazzi said. “This progressed, and it reached the Central Bank, which was not issued.”
As this newspaper learned, the Central Bank considered another option. Being able to “launder” those more than US$2 billion annually, by allowing freelancers that might settle their exports at the financial exchange rate, just as was done with bank accounts for tourists. “0 dollars enter for professional services abroad”, graphed a source from the BCRA. Ámbito asked Galeazzi for his opinion on this possibility: “That would be a shot in the foot, because it would increase the reasons for leaving the companies. It is a matter of protecting an industry that is made up of companies that are the ones that provide structure, we do not support a decision of this type at all”.