Cuba to offload half a million state staff

Published on Monday 13 September 2010 16:05

Cuba will fire more than 500,000 state employees by next March and try to move most to non-state jobs in the biggest shift to the private sector since the 1960s, the official Cuban labour federation has said.

The statement said eventually more than a million jobs would be cut and, due to efforts to increase efficiency in the state sector, there would be few new state sector openings.

More than 85 per cent of the Cuban labour force, or over five million people, worked for the state at the close of 2009.

"Our state cannot and should not continue maintaining companies, productive entities, services and budgeted sectors with bloated payrolls (and) losses that hurt the economy," the statement said yesterday.

According to Communist party sources who have seen the detailed plan to "reorganise the labour force," Cuba expects to issue 250,000 new licences for self-employment by the close of 2011, almost twice the current number, and create 200,000 other non-state jobs.

The plan amounts to the most important reform undertaken by President Raul Castro since he succeeded older brother Fidel.