Monday, March 28, 2005
Tweet[IWS] USAID: CUBA's LABOR MARKET FUTURE (December 2004)
IWS Documented News Service
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Institute for Workplace Studies
School of Industrial & Labor Relations
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor
New York, NY 10016
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U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)
THE FUTURE OF CUBA'S LABOR MARKET: PROSPECTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS (December 2004)
http://www.dec.org/pdf_docs/PNADA453.pdf
[full-text, 51 pages]
Prepared for the Cuba Transition Project (CTP)
Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies
University of Miami
By
Luis Locay
This publication was made possible through support provided
by the Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, U.S.
Agency for International Development, under the terms of
Award No. EDG-A-00-02-00007-00. The opinions expressed
herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
views of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
[excerpt]
Executive Summary
Introduction
The Cuban labor force, shaped by the enormous changes that the
country has undergone since the Revolution, is very unproductive and relatively
well educated. These seemingly contradictory properties are normally
reconciled by attributing the low productivity to misuse of the labor
force by government planners. Under this interpretation, all that Cuba's
labor force needs to become productive is to be freed of the constraints
placed on it by the inefficient system of production in which it is currently
functioning. This study challenges that view.
The forces that shape the formation of skills in market economies
result in a strong relationship between education and earning potential.
Such a close relationship need not exist in Cuba, where the process of
skill formation has been very different. This study presents evidence that
the distribution of skills and occupations in Cuba are different from those
observed in market economies. To become productive, Cuba's labor force
will require not only an efficient work environment that rewards productivity,
but also will have to readjust its distribution of skills to be productive
in a future market economy.
Findings
This paper reports on the connection between wages and productivity,
points out changes in employment patterns in the 1990s, and compares
Cuba's distribution of occupations and postsecondary fields of study with
those of other more market-oriented Latin American economies.
1. The range of salaries in Cuba's public sector is very narrow and
does not seem to reflect adequately differences in productivity.
Private sector wages are far greater than those in the public
sector, overstating the difference in productivity between the two
sectors and contributing to public sector professionals abandoning
their professions for higher paying but lower skilled jobs,
where their skills depreciate.
2. The reforms of 1993-1994, designed to enable the regime to
survive the economic crisis caused by the loss of Soviet support,
led to a decline in public sector employment and the appearance
of a very restricted but significant private sector. Most of the
decline in government employment was accounted for by converting
state farms into cooperatives, increasing employment in
joint ventures between the government and foreign firms, and
allowing development of the true private sector-composed of
small farmers and the newly permitted self-employed.
3. Cuba's distribution of employment by industry and occupation
differ more from average distribution than do those of any other
Latin American country on which data is available. Cuba has the
lowest percentage of employment in wholesale and retail trade
and the second lowest in finance, insurance, real estate, and business
services. Cuba also has the highest percentage of professional,
technical, and administrative personnel but is relatively
light in clerical and service workers.
4. In terms of postsecondary enrollments by field of study, Cuba
also differed more than any other country from the average distribution.
Cuba had by far the highest percentage of majors in
education, health care, and physical education, which together
accounted for nearly 70 percent of postsecondary students in the
1990s. At the other end, Cuba had the lowest percentage of business
students. The sharp decline in postsecondary enrollments in
the 1990s, coupled with the high concentration in the three fields
mentioned above, means that in many important fields Cuba has
very few students.
5. Only one labor organization is allowed to represent Cuba's workers,
and it is widely seen as another instrument of state control.
The independent labor movement is severely limited by the government's
repressive measures, and its economic impact so far
appears negligible.
AND MORE.....
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