/CORRECTED REPEAT/LABOUR-CUBA: Investments Sought to Combat Unemployment

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, Sep 5 2000 (IPS) - The Cuban government is launching a programme to fight high unemployment in the island’s eastern provinces by offering incentives to attract local and foreign investors.

Unemployment in Cuba stands at 6.1 percent of the economically active population, but in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba, Granma and Guantánamo – located some 900 km east of Havana – the unemployment rate runs as high as eight to 10 percent.

The vice-minister of Work and Social Security, Abel Acosta, told IPS that the island’s eastern region needs employment- generating capital, leading the government to offer certain benefits to investors. Acosta refrained from specifying what the incentives would be, however.

In the worst years of the Cuban economic crisis of the 1990s, unemployment reached critical levels, according to experts, especially in the outlying provinces where geographic and climatic factors – such as intense droughts – exacerbate the situation.

“There was no work, so we came to Havana. In Guantánamo, only my grandmother and an aunt to take care of her stayed behind,” said Mercy Bombú, 25. She works daily jobs as a domestic employee so she is able to travel back to her hometown when necessary.

The economic depression Cuba suffered beginning in the early 1990s, due to the disappearance of the markets and support of the Soviet Union and the European socialist bloc, and the adjustment measures adopted in reaction to the situation have meant layoffs for some 120,000 workers, according to official statistics.

Local experts said at the time that labour reforms, intended in part to eliminate underemployment, would lead to job transfers or temporary unemployment for some 500,000 people.

The authorities maintain that despite this discouraging outlook, “no one was left unprotected,” because workers laid off due to an industry closing continued to receive a percentage of their former salary while seeking another position.

Juan Triana, a researcher at the Cuban Centre for Economic Studies, calculates that approximately 17,000 people are still “available,” a term used to identify those left jobless as the result of a company closing or other economic adjustment measures.

The island’s economic recovery has reduced unemployment in Guantánamo by four percentage points, from 12 to eight percent, according to an article published by the state-run press in mid- August.

But the situation continues to be “complicated,” as the government says, because the number of people without work in that province surpasses 15,000, including 11,000 young adults, and most are women.

“Beginning in the early hours one can see people in the street, wandering from one place to the next, chatting among themselves, drinking rum. It is obvious they do not have anything else to do,” observed Amelia Hurtado, a tourist agent, after a recent visit to the eastern province.

The Labour minister himself, Alfredo Morales, recognises that a substantial portion of the jobs created this year in that region are temporary, related to coffee and sugar harvests.

“A complete solution to the region’s problem requires the creation of more than the 14,000 fixed jobs each year,” commented ‘Juventud Rebelde’ newspaper, voice of the Communist Youth Union.

Of the 124,627 jobs created in Cuba from January to June, just 70,851 were permanent positions, and only 30 percent were filled by women, a ratio that indicates this social sector is being overlooked by official policies.

Government statistics indicate that, in the first five months of this year, Guantánamo had 4,801 new jobs, 61 percent permanent, compared to the 53.3 percent of the 15,390 new jobs in Santiago de Cuba and 41.9 percent of the 13,451 in Granma.

In this sense, vice-minister Acosta said the job-creation programme slated to run for the next three to five years seeks to create permanent and sustainable positions, with a strong economic- financial base.

Acosta pointed out that “they must also be well paid because we want people to earn more and have good work conditions (which would) improve labour stability and, as a result, social stability.”

Unemployment in Havana, meanwhile, with its 2.2 million inhabitants, averages 5.4 percent. Official sources insist that the problem here is fundamentally one in which available jobs do not meet the requirements of those looking for work.

“Unemployment occurs when people want to work and there is no source of employment. The unemployed person says he wants to work, but every offer he receives, he rejects,” explained Jesús Cervera, Labour director for the capital.

At the end of last year in Havana, there were approximately 46,000 people looking for work and an estimated 45,000 open positions “in all sectors of the economy,” Cervera told the state-run media.

He added that in the capital there are employers seeking clerks, mill operators, electricians, carpenters, gardeners, auto mechanics, among many other professions, ranging from unskilled to highly-qualified work.

“The truth is that there is a demand for workers and people want to work, but not in the jobs existing in the capital,” commented the city’s labour director.

The jobs in highest demand are in tourism and other sectors associated with foreign investment, which offer better wages. But obtaining such positions requires not only professional qualifications, but also the appropriate political and social conditions.