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Nicaragua Composition of the Labor Force
In 1989 the total labor force consisted of
approximately
1,277,000 persons. Almost one-third of the labor force is
made up
of women, and about one-third of all working-age women
hold jobs.
In general, members of the labor force are relatively
unskilled
and have a high degree of mobility, frequently changing
jobs or
moving to other areas of the country to obtain work.
Agriculture
accounts for more than 30 percent of all employment, and
workers
outside of agriculture are more likely to be self-employed
in
small family-owned enterprises than salaried employees of
larger
concerns.
Approximately 40,000 new people usually enter the
Nicaraguan
labor force each year. Throughout the 1980s, many
Nicaraguan
workers were diverted from productive economic activities
to the
war effort. The 1990 demobilization of the military,
however,
added 50,000 persons to the work force.
Nicaragua entered the 1980s with a severe scarcity of
skilled
labor, especially technicians and other professionals. A
"brain
drain"--more than half a million professionals moved out
of the
country during the Sandinista era--further robbed the
country of
the expertise needed to staff its institutions. As many as
70
percent of Nicaraguan graduates with a master's degree in
business administration were estimated to be in
self-imposed
exile in 1990.
Data as of December 1993
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