The Economy of Work

Bienvenida a nuestro blog! I offer this warm ´welcome´to myself because it is my first time writing on the blog. Any number of solid reasons are to blame, and I apologize to those of you who were on the edge of your seat for the first couple of days and have since lost hope in my entries ever showing up. Even though my research focus while in El Salvador is ´Economy and Trade,´ I am going to casually discuss my daily observations of the Salvadorean world of work because we come face to face with it every day.

It seems that a very large sector of El Salvador´s economy is undocumented and makeshift. Walking down the street, one will notice semi-permanent ´tiendas´ selling pupusas, a traditional Salvadorean favorite, knick-knacks, phone services, or electronics. There are car washes and taquerias in abundance. Sidewalks and town centers are cluttered with street vendors selling random second hand car parts, electronic accessories, pirated CDs, fresh cut melons, and pasteries. One can also find more formal market areas which generally sell an assortment of clothes, Christmas decorations, hammocks, wood crafts, bags, and textiles. Also, there are more mobile vendors walking around through traffic or crowded areas selling bags of nuts, hammocks, and sticker books. At first, I could not help but wonder: ¨Where do they get all of this stuff?¨and ¨Isn´t the market for some of these items flooded?¨

So, where does all this stuff come from? There is a ´free zone´maquila industry in El Salvador, where young women and some men fabricate clothing, or other goods for core countries. Often, these maquilas treat workers very poorly, supply very little health protection, and disrespect worker´s rights continually. The pay is unreliable and varying, if the worker´s receive it at all. When these factories prepare an order for shipment, everything must be inspected for quality. Those items which do not pass the quality check, are sold to street vendors and then sold on the street for very inexpensive prices. A lot of the other goods come straight from China. Truly, others are authentically handmade here in El Salvador. Now, it is too early to predict whether or not the market for such handicrafts is flooded; but as I wondered whether or not there was something that could be done or whether or not some other market could be created to offer more people better jobs, I noticed something else. Salvadoreans (and quite possibly many Latin Americans) have already created an interesting and unique sector of extra jobs for people to perform. This will be the topic of my next entry, so check back. In the meantime, enjoy the blogs de mis amigos.