The 2024 National Occupation Survey reveals that 20.1% of workers in Cuba are in informality.
Miami, United States. – The Cuban labor market faces a structural crisis marked by informality, social lack of protection and the aging of its labor force, according to official data analyzed by Cuban economist Pedro Monreal.
The National Occupation Survey 2024presented by the National Office of Statistics and Information (Onei), reveals that 20.1% of workers in Cuba are in informality, which implies that they work “lacking a link with Social Security.”
“The Cuban labor market today has a high level of social lack of protection,” Monreal warned In a series of publications in X. The economist said that “with one in five employees in a situation of informal occupation – without a guarantee of pension – in a context of population aging and with pensions that are already notoriously insufficient,” the country faces a growing precariousness of working conditions.
The situation is particularly serious in the non -state sector, where “58.5% of informal employed are associated with the categories of self -employed workers,” explained Juan Carlos Alfonso Fraga, Vicejefe de la Onei. If those hired by other private or household actors are included, “seven out of ten workers in this sector are in informality.”
For Monreal, this high concentration of informality (90.1%) in the non -state field “evidence that not only does it work as a low productivity appendix of the state sector, but also as a source of social exclusion.”
Havana heads the list of provinces with the highest percentage of informal occupation, with 19.6%, followed by Santiago de Cuba (10.1%), Holguín (8.9%) and Camagüey (8.7%), according to official data. Agricultural and fishing activity is particularly vulnerable: “It concentrates almost a quarter of the country’s total informal occupation”, which, in the opinion of Monreal, “indicates how problematic it is to promote food security based on a high percentage of socially unprotected workers.”
Despite the unfavorable context, the general unemployment rate is low: 1.7%, of the smallest in the region, although with “higher values in young populations” and a “slight female preponderance,” according to the ONEI report. However, Monreal himself warns that the problem is not limited to the number of unemployed (69,333 people), but to the quality of available employment.
The provinces with the highest unemployment rates are Guantanamo (3.8%), Havana (2.7%) and Artemis (2.2%). On the other hand, the efforts to achieve employment are mainly concentrated in private businesses (29.6%), followed by the labor offices (23.0%), family and friendship networks (20.6%) and companies or other state entities (13.7%).
The economist regrets the lack of institutional response to this panorama. “A separate talk, the Ministry of Labor and the National Institute of Non -State Actors have not signs to have as a real priority to guarantee a non -state labor market with adequate social protection,” he wrote. In his opinion, these organizations “contribute to creating more exclusion and poverty.”
The employment structure also reflects a male predominance and a high participation of workers in the sector of services, professionals, scientific and intellectuals. However, “there is a decrease in the state sector and an increase in the non -state or private sector,” according to Alfonso Fraga.
“The depauperation of the labor market” is, according to Pedro Monreal, “the greatest shipwreck of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security and the National Institute of Non -State Economic Actors.” Beyond the ineffectiveness in the management of “vulnerability” or “atrophy” of the non -state sector, warns that “high informality and lack of social protection” configure a work system that excludes instead of integrating.
The survey also indicates that 52.1% of the employed population is in the process of aging. In this regard, Joel Granda Dihigo, deputy director of the Center for Population and Development Studies of the ONEI, reiterated that the country’s work structure must adapt to “the demographic transition that Cuba lives.”
Meanwhile, the number of people outside the workforce remains high: approximately 50% of the population aged 15 and over, which remains inactive for reasons such as studies, retirement, disability or other conditions.
Faced with this scenario, Monreal insists: “Labor informality is not only an economic, but also social problem.”
