The National Development Agency (ANDE) indicated that nearly 40,000 jobs have been lost since the beginning of the pandemic.

In the first three months of 2024, 7,540 companies closed, the highest number in the last two years. In that period, the highest number of inactive companies was also recorded in all of Uruguay since 2018.

The National Institute of Statistics (INE) revealed the number of companies that closed and opened in the first quarter of the year.

In the first case, the figure was 4.8% higher in the interannual comparison and 7.8% in relation to the last quarter of last year.

The 7,540 companies that stopped operating between January and March 2024 exceeded the 7,003 in the last quarter of 2023 and 7,197 in the year-on-year comparison. The companies closed so far this year were 547 more than three months ago and 343 more than at the beginning of last year.

The figure was surpassed in the first quarter of 2022 when there were 8,716. Except for that period, the 2024 amount was the highest since 2018, even taking into account the first quarters affected by the outbreak of covid-19. In 2020, the peak of closed companies was recorded in the fourth quarter with 7,296.

In times of covid-19, the data that stands out from the graph was the start of business closures. In the second quarter of 2020, there were 11,881 who began the procedures to end their activity.

The first months of the pandemic were those that generated the most uncertainty for business activity. In August 2020, the National Development Agency (ANDE) reported that between February and June, 7,000 small and medium-sized businesses had closed, of which 4,200 were sole proprietorships.

As a result of these shutdowns of companies with less than 100 employees, ANDE indicated that nearly 40,000 jobs had been lost since the beginning of the pandemic.

Open companies

At the beginning of the year, the birth of 9,750 companies was verified with a growth of 7.5% in the interannual relationship and a decrease of 5% compared to the previous quarter. Compared to the same period last year, 678 more companies were created.

The second quarter of 2020 was also the one with the lowest registration of company births with 4,796.

Cessation and restart of activities

In the period surveyed, 10,243 companies began the procedures to cease activity. The year-on-year increase was 11.6%, while the increase compared to the previous quarter was 15.4%.

The companies that restarted activity were 1,593. In the interannual relationship, there was an increase of 30.7% and compared to the previous quarter, a decrease of 17% was recorded.

Active and inactive

The INE report showed that at the beginning of the year the highest number of active companies was observed (190,243), with an increase of 4% and a rise of 7,959. It was the highest figure since the first quarter of 2018, the period covered by the study. The smallest amount was recorded between April and June 2018 with 155,900. The lowest during Covid-19 was during the second quarter of 2020 with 156,438.

There were 65,625 inactive companies in the first quarter of 2024 with year-on-year growth of 8% and 5,021 more in the same relationship. It was also the most since 2018, followed by 63,509 in the third quarter of 2023.

Companies by department

Montevideo had the largest number of active and inactive companies, with 89,169 and 29,978, respectively. In the first quarter, 4,404 were created while 3,239 closed. Then Canelones was located with 25,477 active companies and 8,810 inactive. In this department, the birth of 1,449 and the death of 991 were recorded. In third place was Colonia with 8,127 companies in operation and 2,428 without activity.

In the first quarter, 338 were created and 282 closed.

Gazelle companies

The INE describes gazelle companies as those that have been up to five years old and have significant growth in terms of employees, beginning the analysis period with a threshold of at least 10 workers and showing an average annualized increase of more than 10% for three years. consecutive years.

The period surveyed by the INE was between 2018 and 2023. At the end of last year, the activity of 138 gazelle companies was confirmed in Uruguay.

The report indicates that in 2021 there were 51, which suggests that the start of the pandemic in 2020 may have impacted the generation of companies with these characteristics. The following year there were 70 and in 2023 there were 138. The year-on-year growth was practically double. Last year, these companies had 6,836 workers, with a growth of 75% compared to 2022 when there had been 3,905.