Employment: A Radical Transformation of the Cuban People?

Armando Soler Hernández Havana, Cuba

A s time goes by, employment in Cuba is acquiring unusual tinges. Official data take for granted that about 80 % of the jobs are in the state sector and 11-12 % in the private one, also known as the selfemployment sector. Do these figures give the real spectrum quite clearly? It is public knowledge that, despite the new Foreign Investment Law, the volume of investments does not cover the expectations for improving employment and living standards. At least, a lot of people do not experience it at the dinner table. And for the hopeful private sector, it is visible that many Havanan entrepreneurs have closed their small points of sale( POS) opened just a year ago. These POS are generally dedicated to selling light and processed foods, such as pizzas. They couldn’ t withstand the rush of inspectors, the taxes and the rampant inflation. What happens to the entrepreneurs who were forced to close? How will they live off from now on? Will they return to be state employee? With the economic policy of reducing inflated payrolls applied in the most recent years, there is apparently no room for these intrepid losers. Although in an irregular and inefficient manner, such austerity policy in the labor market has largely limited the number of state jobs available. Another factor that exacerbated this situation was the rise of the working age to 65 for men and to 60 for women. Therefore, it is very difficult to resume a state job and, above all, a position with access to resources that the employee can steal. In the Cuban jargon, such a position is dubbed as one with búsqueda( forage). In Gaston ' s opinion, the situation has many nuances. He prefers that I call him so, like an uncle he loved much. Gastón is a retired economist, who is currently dedicated to keep the accounts of several successful restaurants and of others that are not so successful, but still are rendering some benefits for him. Let’ s go into the subject with Gastón. I will technically use búsqueda for naming any illegal parallel income. It is the main attraction for coming back to state employment, let’ s say, a sine qua non. People even pay bribes to get such a job. Usually it can be found where food is handled or stored, but also in other sectors, such as construction materials, parts and pieces for home installations, which are related to the more dynamic supplies in the black market, those that disappear faster without leaving traces in the bottomless pit that is the people in need. The employees who facilitate the transfer of goods are unique, because they probably use part of their working time for the state employer and spend the rest in the black market as self-employee or entrepreneur. For me, it’ s a rising line