Monday, November 19, 2012

What people do for a living in Arica?

This is a frequent answer from people interested to move from abroad, how can I make a living here?. I recently made a research of economic sectors and employement and, based in data of Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (INE) obtained the following rank of working posts for economic activity:

1-Commerce and Car Repairment 13630 people
2-Agriculture 9260
3-Schools/Universities 6980
4-Minning 6880
5-Manufacturing industry 6490
6-Transport, storage, communications 6090
7-Government/Defense 5980
8-Building 4390
9-Hotels/Restaurants 3910
10-Real Estate/Others 3500

The unemployment rate for July-September was 4.4%, so in Arica there is full employment.

Commerce, hotels and restaurants account for almost 40% of the economic activity in the city. People who work in agriculture are mostly temporary Peruvian and Bolivian workers, many of them undocumented, they work for very low wages, except in the research laboratories for seed production (10 companies in Arica) who hire formally.

There are no minning in Arica and the 6880 people employed in minning have their jobs outside (Iquique, Antofagasta) but have their home and live in Arica during their spare time. There are 3 universities and some 60 elementary and high schools where 6980 people work.

Arica is also the city with more formal micro bussines relatively in Chile: 17720 people are self employed and 51470 have a regular job with a boss in a company. There are 3660 owners of business who employ people.

The minimun wage is about US$ 388 and is the regular for unskilled workers. More specialized jobs rage from 625 to 1040 for blue collar or clerks. Professional or critical jobs start about 1250 for entry level to some 1875 or up. Wages in government are higher by a fctos of 30%-40%

That is -more or less- how people make a living here in Arica.

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