By Humberto Márquez
CARACAS, Jul 17 1996 (IPS)

The majority of Venezuela’s work force earns less than 170 dollars a month – estimated to be the minimun wage to feed a family of five, according to recent survey.

A report from the Datanalsis polling firm said 62.6 percent of all workers have incomes of less than 110 dollars a month and another 21.3 percent earn between 110 and 170 dollars monthly.

The results of the survey added to the general gloom surrounding the national economy. Official government figures put the unemployment rate at 11 percent of Venezuala’s eight million economically active population. Of this with a job, around 50 percent work in the informal sector.

The growth of this informal sector concerns humanitarian and social organizations as more and more women and children are becoming involved. They do not not receive social benefits, and nearly all earn less than the minimum salary, as does the large segment of formal sector workers.

Union federations have denounced the government’s wage policy before the International Labor Organization.

The unions put the cost of feeding five people at 170 dollars in March, one month before the government introduced a structural adjustment programme which resulted in commodity price increases nationwide. Inflation reached a whopping 62.3 percent at the close of the first half of the year.

According to polling firms, in a classification scheme that breaks the population up into five categories, only the wealthiest socio-economic groups – categories A and B – spend less than half of their income on food, while group C spends 62 percent, group D 77 percent and group E, the poorest sector of society, 81 percent.

The low incomes combined with continuously high inflation – 71 percent in 1994 and 57 percent in 1995 — have led to a fall in the demand for food in the past three months ranging from 25 percent for milk, to 50 percent for fruit simply because workers cant afford it.

Other goods and services have also been affected. Hardware stores and repair shops have registered a drop in household spending on repairs and equipment. Overdue electricity bills are piling up and telephone use has dropped 11 percent.

New vehicle sales fell 40 percent in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 1995. And private clinics in Caracas have had a hard time because their patients have increasingly turned to self-diagnosis and over-the-counter products.

Publicity firms are concerned at the decreasing tendency of buyers to purchase according to brand-name. People shopping for food and detergents, for example, look only for bargains according to price and net weight, trade sources said.

Demand for luxury foods, such as expensive canned goods and cheese, has dropped more than 50 percent, and shoppers are turning toward the more affordable tuna and sardines while leaving other salmon and other fish for better times.

Although food stores have declared a fierce price war in an effort to hold on to their clients, buyers are shopping more and more at low-priced open air markets organized by community organizations with state support.

The current economic squeeze may even affect the private education system when he Venezuelan school year begins in October, financial observers said.

The Catholic Church leadership has warned that the middle class and the poor have been hard-hit by the present situation, and the Episcopal conference has demanded that President Rafael Caldera implement urgent social measures to alleviate the impact of the crisis.

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