On a recent morning, Venezuelan mother Rossana Suarez took her three children to work with her because school was cancelled. In an unfortunate twist, they would witness her being dismissed as a receptionist for a medical equipment company and joining the growing ranks of Venezuelans without formal employment.
"They did not give a reason. I swallowed hard and told my children not to cry," Suarez, 36, said under the midday sun outside an office of the Labour Ministry in Caracas where she and dozens of others waited from before dawn to lodge complaints. "My oldest daughter asked me, 'Mom, how are we going to eat? You're the only one who works at home.'"
Multiple companies - local and foreign - are closing doors or cutting payrolls across Venezuela, which despite its oil wealth is suffering deep recession, triple-digit inflation and chronic shortages.
According to Consecomercio, a major retail industry group, Venezuela in the past 18 months lost close to 1 million private sector jobs.
"Who is creating jobs? Nobody," said Consecomercio Vice President Alfonso Riera. "That unemployed population unfortunately is migrating to the street, informal work or worse."
Government critics say nationalizations of businesses and more than a decade of price and currency controls have crippled private enterprise, but President Nicolas Maduro says Venezuela is a victim of an "economic war" led by business leaders with US help.
Venezuela has not reported official unemployment figures since April 2016, when the rate was at 7.3 percent.
A survey by three universities showed unemployment at the end of 2016 remained at that level. But the study also found 38 percent of those surveyed were working informal jobs ranging from buying and reselling goods to freelance work without benefits.
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