Madrid/It is of no use that the official press stands out, when reviewing the most recent occupation survey published Tuesday by the National Statistics and Information Office (Onei), which the island has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the region (1.7%). The weight of reality begins to fall in the second paragraph: more than half of Cubans over 15 years of age do not work or do not seek work.
Granma Nor does he express it that way, but in affirmative: “About 50% of the population aged 15 and more is part of that workforce, while the rest is outside it for reasons such as studies, retirement, disability or other conditions.” Onei’s figures are clear: of the 8,433,226 of Cubans 15 years or more in 2024, 4,227,333 people were not part of the workforce, compared to 4,205,893 that yes (50.1% compared to 49.9%), but it is that of the latter, 69,333 are unoccupied.
This is an occupation rate – the percentage of people of working age who has a job – of just 49%, one of the lowest in the region. As the EFE agency, the average in Latin America and the Caribbean points out last year was 58.9%, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO).
Other characteristics of the Cuban labor market, even indicated by Granmathey are “the aging of the workforce, structural imbalances and informality in employment.” More than half of those employed are over 45 and the average age of the employees is 44.3 years.
Other characteristics of the Cuban labor market, indicated even by Granma, are “the aging of the workforce, structural imbalances and informality in employment”
Among people with work, almost 50% (48.8%) are between 45 and 64, while 47.3% of unemployed Cubans are in the youngest age strip, between 15 and 34 years. This is consistent with the general figures of population: More than a quarter of 9.7 million Cubans is 60 years old or more, which places the country as one of the most aging in the region.
In addition to emphasizing that “52.1% of the employed population is in the process of aging”, the Vice Chief of the Onei, Juan Carlos Alfonso Fraga, declared that one of the “novelty” indicators of the survey is the “presence of 20.1% of occupied in informality”, defined as “the work for remuneration or benefit, lacking a link with the social security, according to their status as a status. wage earner, both inside and outside the informal sector. ”
Of these, the official highlighted 58.5% “is associated with the categories of self -employed workers”, that is, to the private sector, in which “seven out of ten workers” are “in informality.”
The Cuban economist resident in the USA Pedro Monreal It highlights, in this regard, another issue: the “fragility” of non -state employment, “concentrated in self -employment” (TCP). “Almost four years after the MSMEs have been legalized, these only have 4.5% of the non -state employment, while the TCP concentrates almost two thirds of non -state employment.” This indicates, for the specialist, “a minimum advance in the adoption of a more advanced private institutional format than the TCP.”
Several experts and the owners of micro, small and medium enterprises indicate that the stagnation of this sector is due to the restrictions imposed by the Government, which continues to prioritize the state sector.
Monreal warns of the perverse effects of that policy: “Maintain two thirds of non -state employees in the TCP segment relegates the non -state sector to function as an appendix of very low productivity of the state economy.”
