The private sector is growing to the detriment of state-owned companies, which have ceased to be the economic engine
14ymedio, Madrid, July 24, 2024 — Despite the obstinacy of the authorities in qualifying the socialist enterprise as the “main mover of the Cuban economy,” the data are stubborn: the only sector in which employment is growing is the private sector. In 2023, there were 13% fewer public workers than in 2020 (from 3,094,300 to 2,688,400), while in the non-state sector there were 4.4% more (from 1,549,300 to 1,618,500). In total, the workforce decreased by 7.2% in the last three years, from a total of 4,643,700 workers to 4,306,900.
The improvement is attributable to the MSMEs, since cooperatives decrease by 7.5%, and within the private businesses, self-employment also decreased, representing almost half, which is a 4% decrease compared to four years ago. The workers of these companies in 2023 numbered a little more than 548,000, which was the year they increased by 16%, three percentage points more than for 2021 and 2022.
The data, published in the employment and wages section of the 2023 Yearbook of the National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), make it clear that the loss of workers in the state sector is much higher than the decrease in the number of people who work in Cuba. And it is not surprising if we look at the average monthly salaries, which are dramatic.
In 2023, there were 13% fewer public workers than in 2020 (from 3,094,300 to 2,688,400)
In 2023, a Cuban worker earned an average of 4,648 pesos a month, less than what three kilos of powdered milk costs today with the capped prices, or seven kilos of chicken meat. Cuban economist Omar Everleny Pérez estimated last March that the cost of a monthly shopping basket in Cuba, with a selection of 17 basic products in moderate quantities at the prices recorded by ONEI, was around 10,000 pesos.
The situation is more serious if you take into account that the data include joint ventures, where workers earn much more than in state-owned companies. This is, in all likelihood, one of the factors that pushes wages up the most if it is distinguished by sectors. The highest is
