Industry Day: CABA lost 17,000 jobs in the sector in 2 years and warns that the decline continues

In the last two years, the industry in Buenos Aires City lost nearly 17,000 jobs and has accumulated a decline of about 10%. Since 2023, 657 industrial companies in the city have closed, and much of the job recovery that had occurred after the pandemic has been lost. On the occasion of Industry Day, they warn that the crisis in the district is ongoing and continues to increase amid the national government's policies.

A report by the USINA observatory revealed that in 2024, factory revenues in the City "suffered the largest annual drop in over twenty years" with a deterioration of 10.6% compared to 2023. In the first half of that year, they fell 17% year-on-year in the first quarter and 18.5% in the second, records that were described as "deeper than the worst year-on-year quarter of the pandemic."

In 2025, activity recorded a rebound of only 1.6%, which clearly was not enough to recover what was lost. For this reason, they assert that based on 2023, the production of goods during the first stage of 2026 in CABA remains 12% lower.

"Between November 2023 and May 2026, the port city industry lost 16,868 workers, a contraction of 10%," the report adds, and states that during the same period, "657 fewer industrial companies were registered."

Despite the crisis, CABA remains the second industrial jurisdiction in the country. It ranks behind the Province of Buenos Aires but above districts like Santa Fe and Córdoba. It concentrates about 17.5% of Argentine industrial companies, 14% of registered industrial employment, and 12% of national manufacturing output, they summarize.

The report conducted by the agency linked to Kilómetro Cero, the political organization promoted by Augusto Costa, points out that CABA has the particularity that its industry "often goes unnoticed" because it does not necessarily correspond to the traditional image of large plants and chimneys. "It is a production integrated into the urban fabric, with a strong presence of SMEs and primarily oriented towards the domestic market. There are factories, laboratories, and workshops operating in the midst of neighborhoods, daily linked with commerce, services, and the life of the City," they state.

To illustrate the dimension of the port city's industrial ecosystem, they provided some examples. The laboratory Andrómaco, located a few meters from Casa Rosada, produces the traditional Hipoglós, while food companies like Jorgito, or leather goods firms like Prüne have a presence in CABA. "In addition, there are graphic design firms, textiles, metalworking workshops, and medical equipment companies distributed across various neighborhoods in the city. It is not an industry separate from the City: it is part of it," they emphasize.

For USINA, this is precisely one of the main challenges moving forward. Urban industry has transformed, and public policy must accompany that transformation.

According to them, the industry has been losing ground within the port city's economy for years. If in 2004 it represented 16.2% of the port city's Gross Geographic Product, in 2025 it was only 9.3%.

The port observatory asserts that part of this decline is linked to a lack of direction in local public policy. "During nearly two decades of PRO governments, the industry has progressively become invisible both in policies and in official discourse, despite continuing to be one of the most important economic frameworks in Buenos Aires," they criticized.

In a City that concentrates universities, hospitals, knowledge, and technological capabilities, there is enormous potential to link these institutions more closely with the productive framework and to think jointly about production, work, and urban development.

On this Industry Day, USINA maintains that it is necessary to deepen a common perspective on work and production in the City as the first step to building a productive development strategy. Buenos Aires does not need to invent an industry that does not exist: it needs to recognize the one it still has, prevent it from continuing to lose capabilities, and think about how to transform it for the future.

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