"Chamba" in Honduras: Introduction

Once a month a segment called "Working" airs on the radio show Marketplace from American Public Radio. The segment focuses on one person and their job. (You can view the entire series and listen to archives by clicking here)

Inspired by the series, we are proud to present a weekly series of posts called "Chamba in Honduras." (In Honduras, Chamba is slang for workin') The posts will appear every Wednesday in February and focus on the lives and work of Hondurans. The series will try to explain what it means to have a job in Honduras.

Workin' Facts

Despite already high unemployment levels in Honduras, experts predict less jobs in 2009. The World Factbook of the CIA estimated that the unemployment rate in Honduras was 27.8% in 2007. According to El Heraldo, one of the daily newspapers of Tegucigalpa, business was slowing down in 2008, evidenced by the layoffs of 20,000 construction workers and between 12,000 and 15,000 workers in the maquilas or garment factories. The business community was shocked on December 27, 2008, when President Jose Manuel Zelaya made official an increase in the minimum monthly wage from $180 (Lps 3,428.40) to $290 (Lps 5,500). Before the law went into effect on January 1, 2009, large personnel cutbacks began. The Honduran Private Business Council (Cohep) estimates that 15,000 Hondurans have been laid off since the announcement. The garment factories were not affected by the new wage because they pay per piecework or factory production. The National Industrial Association (ANDI) predicts cutbacks in the industrial sector of the economy to reach 300,000 Hondurans by the end of 2009.

The National Statistics Institute (INE) reports that Honduras has an active workforce of 3.2 million, of which 650,000 Hondurans have minimum wage jobs.