Trade Union Says Venezuela Under President Maduro Lost Almost 4Mln Jobs

MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) — During Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s term, the country’s private sector has lost nearly 4 million jobs, coordinator of the federation of civil workers Servando Carbone said Thursday.

"Since the moment Nicolas Maduro came to power in 2013 and to date, private companies have reduced the number of jobs by more than 3.85 million," Carbone told the Union radio station. He added that the country's economy had shrunk by 32 percent in comparison with 2013.

Venezuela is going through the worst economic crisis in its history which started in 2012 with changes on the global oil market. More than 95 percent of its export revenues come from oil and its derivatives. In 2015, with the fall of prices on hydrocarbons to 50 dollars per barrel, Venezuela's economy was knocked out, leaving the population with shortages of food and medicine.

Venezuela has experienced several months of unrest, which intensified in the run-up to Constituent Assembly election held on July 30. The government wanted to launch the assembly in order to stabilize the situation in the country amid the ongoing economic and political crisis, but the opposition was strongly against the move regarding it as an attempted coup.