Hidden Brain Drain Poses Threat to Argentina’s Fragile Recovery

Juan Navarro faces a laundry list of challenges running a software company in crisis-prone Argentina.

There’s inflation that’s running at 50% a year, high corporate taxes, and rigid labor laws. But the founder of Hexacta says his biggest headache is an exodus of high-skilled employees ditching jobs with peso salaries for freelance work that’s paid in dollars.

Argentina has suffered periodic brain drains during turbulent times. Yet unlike episodes in the 1980s or 2000s, many tech-savvy college grads today are quitting their jobs but not their homeland. Navarro estimates he had to replace 80 of his 600 workers in ...