Companies on the brink: 153 preventive crisis procedures initiated this year

The health of companies continued to deteriorate during the first seven months of 2026. As of July 23, 153 preventive crisis procedures had been initiated with the Ministry of Labor. The official data comes from a public information request made by Ámbito. This figure marks a new acceleration: if only the business days during that period are considered, more than one procedure was opened per day. Since Javier Milei's government began, at least 448 requests have been submitted. A new wave of layoffs is unfolding in Argentina. Notably, the government did not respond to several points.

The debate about the state of economic activity in sectors that directly affect the majority of the population finds few nuances. Last Thursday, the Superintendence of Labor Risks revealed that the net destruction of companies accelerated in May, with a decrease of 2,371 productive units, equivalent to 0.49% of the total. More than 30,000 companies have been lost in the last three years.

In the universe of firms that survive, the number of those experiencing a crisis situation is also growing. In the first seven months of 2026, at least 153 preventive procedures were initiated. The data is official and comes from a public information request made by Ámbito, which the Ministry of Labor partially responded to.

Since Javier Milei's government began, at least 448 requests have been submitted. There were 131 in 2024, 164 in 2025, and by July 23 of this year, another 153 had already been submitted. The annual historical series helps to contextualize the situation: in 2015 there were only 33; in 2016, 55; in 2017, 63; and they only shot up to 153 in 2018 and 184 in 2019. This means that current values are similar to those recorded during the currency crisis of Mauricio Macri's government.

Recent comparisons show that in 2020, requests had slowed to 26, although this was an exceptional context due to the pandemic and the relief measures promoted by the State. In 2021 there were 24; in 2022, 43; and in 2023, 42 procedures of this type were requested.

The Preventive Crisis Procedure is a mandatory legal mediation instance that companies must process with the Ministry of Labor before executing mass layoffs or suspensions for economic reasons or force majeure. It is a mechanism that seeks to bring business chambers, unions, and the State to the same table to negotiate alternatives - such as vacation advances, reduced working hours, or retirement plans - that prevent job destruction.

A mechanism under stress

For labor lawyer Juan Manuel Ottaviano, the evolution of the number of cases indicates that "social dialogue is at its maximum" in a context of company decline, activity regression, lack of hiring, and layoffs. In this sense, he considered that the mechanism "is already quite limited for crises extended at the sectoral level" and added: "It is much more limited for a situation like this, which affects practically all economic and labor activity in the country."

Official data indicates that on May 6, 6,791 registered workers lost their jobs. Since November 2023, the net decline in registered salaried workers has exceeded 337,300, according to the Argentine Integrated Pension System (SIPA), marking thirteen consecutive months of decline.{#p-1786834594625-8749}

The release of this data coincides with a week in which a new wave of layoffs was triggered: a food company that closed its plant in Mendoza; Granja Tres Arroyos, which laid off 250 workers in Entre Ríos; a meatpacking plant in Mar del Plata; an electronics firm in Tierra del Fuego; another textile company in Catamarca, and more. If these recent cases are added, the result is a new FATE case.{#p-1786835432491-26751}

For June, the outlook does not look promising. The Labor Indicators Survey has again reported negative results. It remains to be seen if SIPA will validate this observation, but there are no signs that the formal labor market has found its bottom.{#p-1786835432491-76560}

What the Government Did Not Answer {#p-1786835432491-44553}

In the same request for public information that obtained the data on the number of preventive procedures, this media outlet had submitted other inquiries: the number of affected workers, sectors with the highest number of companies in crisis, geographical distribution of the problem, and the number of layoffs or suspensions agreed upon in each case, among others.{#p-1786835432491-55084}

The Government decided not to provide that information. It cited Article 5 of Law 27.275, which removes the obligation to individually review files and "reprocess or reclassify" the information in question.{#p-1786835432491-30423}

It is noteworthy that the Ministry of Human Capital and the Labor Secretariat have not taken the effort to process this data in greater detail, given the delicate situation of the labor market and such palpable fragility in the private sector that led to more preventive crisis procedures being initiated in the first seven months of this year than in the four years of the previous administration combined.{#p-1786835432491-4992}