Managua survives on a developing market economy based largely on agriculture, light industries and trade. Agriculture accounts for 1/4 of the gross national product but employs as much as 2/5 of the workforce in Nicaragua. Corn, sorghum, and beans are the chief staples and coffee, cotton, bananas and sugar are primarily grown for export. Mining is a huge industry as well. Industries employ about 1/10 of the population and account for 1/5 of the GNP production. Industry production includes refined sugar, petroleum products, chemical, cigarettes, leather goods, textiles, cement and plastics. Nicaragua does most of its trading with Canada, Germany, the former Soviet Union, Cuba and Japan.
As mentioned before, unemployment is extremely high and much of the working population is employed through the formal sector. So much internal migration has taken place that it is impossible to assimilate everyone into the economy and due to the debt crisis of the 1980s further economic advancement has been hindered.
The class structure for Managua and Nicaragua for that matter is pretty much determined by the employment opportunities. Land provides much of the wealth to the people of Managua but only about 20% of its inhabitants experience that wealth. The rural low-class is dependent on agriculture for their income and are often migrant groups that move with the harvest seasons. The majority urban lower-class are employed in the informal sector. This means that they are either self-employed, unsalaried family workers, or are employees of small enterprises. Tinsmiths, mattress makers, seamstresses, bakers, shoemakers, and carpenters make up the employment of most of this area. This sector is continuing to expand though, and often these jobs are not enough to provide the basic employment needs.
Most of the countries transportation systems are confined to mostly the urban western zone. It consist of a network of highways, parts of which are impassable during the rainy season. When they become impassable many people use ox and carts. A major part of this system includes 255 miles of the Pan-American highway which comes down through the west of Honduras through Nicaragua and on to Costa Rica. From the Pan-American highway runs a very important road that connects Managua eastward to the Port Esperanza at Rama and another road connects Managua with Puerto Cabezas on the Caribbean.
There are a few hundred miles of railway included in the transportation networks of Nicaragua. Most of this railway runs from Granada, northwest to Corinto on the Pacific Ocean and another goes north from Leon to the coffee area of Carazo.
Ocean ports are an important part of the transportation network and the economy for Managua. Corinto is the main ocean port for foreign trade and the Caribbean ports of Puerto Cabezas at Bluefields and Port Esperanza and the Pacific ports of Puerto Sandino and San Juan del Sur, mostly for domestic trade.
Managua is connected to most major cities on the east and west via highway and railroad. The main international airport is in Managua but only provides services to North America and Latin America. There are other airports around Nicaragua that provide domestic travel. In Managua specifically most transportation is done either by bus, bike or foot. Cars are scarce and only 1 in every 100 people has one.
Social programs for the poor were a priority for the Sandinista's, though many of them have been terminated since 1990. Health services are poor because of lack of trained personnel and poor conditions of health care facilities. The life expectancy for Nicaraguans is about 61 for males and 63 for females.
Education is free between the ages of 6 and 13 years but about 3/4 of the children attend primary school and only a small percentage of them go onto secondary school. Nicaragua's oldest universities are National Autonomous University and the Central American University located in Managua and other universities have been established in the 80s and 90s.
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