Easy to find job as unskilled worker in Uruguay?

Hello Cornith,

The short answer is no, it is almost impossible for expats to find unskilled jobs in almost all of the South American countries for various reasons.

One being that local labor laws in most of the countries require employers to prove that they have been unable to find a qualified citizen to fill a vacancy before they would be permitted to fill it with an expat. That automatically means that almost all of the unskilled jobs would go to unemployed local citizens first.

Due to the free falling world prices of oil, and remember most South American countries are oil producers, their economy is depressed and unemployment is high. While Uruguay may be slightly better off than some of the surrounding countries, it is still no bed of roses.

Unless you are already in the country and have proper documentation, visas, work permits etc., it is highly unlikely you would be able to find work from abroad anyway.

Cheers,
James
expat.com Experts Team

Yes - the general skill level of unskilled labor is tragic.  Uruguay somehow has not stressed nor developed a generally populous given to performing unskilled tasks and in fact only has pockets of light developed industry mainly concentrated in the Montevideo metropolis and along the Rio Plata.  If you have general skilled abilities - not a skilled specialists - then you should be will able to locate employment.