During 2015 we lived the end of the primary matters’ cycle, particularly in the mining sector, where companies went from increasing production to a strong reduction of costs to protect their operational margins.

The 26% drop of the price of copper during 2015 had a great impact on companies’ revenues, which led companies to apply a number of cutbacks.

The most important result of these measures has been the destruction of employment in the mining sector. According to data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), there was a 5.2% drop of people employed by the sector during the 3^rd quarter of 2015. By the beginning of 2015, 235.810 workers were employed by the mining industry, but that number has fallen to 223.390, which means that 12.420 jobs were eliminated. If we compare these figures to the ones of October 2012, there has been a 14.4% drop (37.600 less jobs).

Staff cutbacks were one of the tools companies used to increase savings. Experts of the mining sector have said that other measures to reduce expenses have been hiring cheaper workforce and paying lower incentives.

Source: Diario Financiero