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Paraguay LABOR
Paraguay's labor force surpassed 1.4 million in 1986, or
approximately 37 percent of the country's estimated population.
Government statistics recorded an unemployment rate of 14 percent
in 1986, but that figure dropped to 8 percent in 1987. Estimates of
unemployment varied widely outside Paraguayan government circles.
For example, the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin
America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) estimated unemployment as high as
18 percent in 1986 with as much as 50 percent underemployment in
urban areas. Males dominated the official labor force, accounting
for 79 percent of registered workers. Women were visibly a much
higher percentage of the work force than official statistics
reflected. But, unlike in most Latin American countries, Paraguay's
female labor force was not growing faster than the male labor
force; males were expected to continue to constitute a
disproportionate share of the labor force for some time to come.
Statistics on the distribution of labor by economic sector in
1987 showed 48 percent of workers in agriculture, 31 percent in
services, and 21 percent in industry. Males dominated agricultural
labor, whereas women were most prominent in the services sector.
The country maintained the highest percentage of labor in
agriculture in all of South America and one of the lowest services
percentages on the continent. Nevertheless, according to data from
the IDB, a large portion of the labor force in Asunción was in the
informal sector (see Glossary),
generally in services. In fact,
Asunción ranked second among Latin American cities in the
percentage of labor force in the informal sector.
Unlike most Latin American countries, the distribution of
Paraguay's labor force had changed little in thirty-five years. In
1950 agriculture comprised 55 percent of the labor force, services
25 percent, and industry 20 percent. The greatest fluctuations
within economic sectors during the 1980s occurred in the
construction industry, which was directly affected by hydroelectric
development. After the end of Itaipú's construction phase in the
early 1980s, observers estimated that the number of construction
workers dropped from 100,000 to 25,000, but they expected that the
start-up of construction at the Yacyretá hydroelectric project
would restore many of those jobs.
Comprehensive labor laws had been passed since 1961, but they
were not universally enforced. Laws theoretically regulated maximum
hours to be worked per week, child labor, union activities, female
labor, maternity leave, holidays, and social security and
established a minimum wage. Minimum wages, in effect since 1974,
were set by the Labor Authority according to geographic location
and task performed. Minimum wages in the 1970s and 1980s did not
keep pace with inflation, and the real minimum wage was eroding.
The real wages of the work force at large, however, eroded even
more quickly than minimum wages over the same period. Employees
typically worked from 6:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. with an almost
universal midday siesta.
Organized labor provided the best example of the loose
enforcement of labor laws. Although the country's labor laws
permitted free association by labor unions, most labor movements
had been thwarted by the government since 1958, the year of a major
strike by the Paraguayan Confederation of Workers (Confederación
Paraguaya de Trabajadores--CPT). There was a growing independent
workers' movement developing in the 1980s, which was fueled mostly
by dissatisfaction with the declining real wage of the Paraguayan
worker. Nonetheless, unionized labor remained dominated by the CPT,
which was generally more progovernment than prolabor and rarely
challenged government policy
(see Interest Groups
, ch. 4).
Data as of December 1988
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