Most of Guatemala's population engages in subsistence agriculture and self-employed handicraft activity. In 1999, the economically active population numbered 4.2 million. As of 1999, it was divided among the following sectors: agriculture, 50%; industry, 15%; and services, 35%. As of 1999, the unemployment rate stood at 7.5%.
The trade union movement was born at the end of World WarII. Directed in part by foreign communist labor leaders and cultivated by a sympathetic administration, the labor movement grew in the next 10 years to a force claiming nearly 500 unions with 100,000 members. With the overthrow of the Árbenz government in 1954, however, the unions were dissolved. After slow reorganization, the trade unions numbered about 110 by 1974, but in 1979 and 1980, trade union activity was severely restricted. In 1992, the Labor Code of 1947 was amended to facilitate freedom of association, to strengthen the rights of working women, to increase penalties for violations of labor laws, and to enhance the role of the Labor Ministry and the courts in enforcement. Approximately 2% of the workforce were union members in 2002. Unions are independent of government and political party domination, however retaliation against union participation is common. Workers dismissed for union activity have little legal or administrative redress. Workers have the right to strike, but it is weakened by legal restrictions and the force of tradition in a country where strikes were illegal until recently.
The workweek is statutorily recognized as being 44 hours long, but most workers work longer hours out of economic necessity. The minimum legal age to work is 14 but child labor remains a huge problem particularly in agriculture and in the informal economy. Hazardous conditions for child laborers are common especially in the fireworks industry. The minimum wage as of 2002 was $3.57 per eight-hour day for industrial workers and $3.24 per day for agricultural workers. There is routine noncompliance of the minimum wage law in the rural areas.