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Cuba to cut one million public sector jobs

Cuba's government employs about 85% of the workforce
Cuba has announced radical plans to lay off huge numbers of state
employees, to help revive the communist country's struggling economy.

The Cuban labour federation said more than a million workers would
lose their jobs - half of them by March next year.

Those laid off will be encouraged to become self-employed or join new
private enterprises, on which some of the current restrictions will be
eased.

It is biggest shift to the private sector since the revolution in 1959.

Cuba's communist government currently controls almost all aspects of
the country's economy and employs about 85% of the workforce.

"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 labour federation said
in a statement.

"Job options will be increased and broadened with new forms of non-
state employment, among them leasing land, co-operatives, and self-
employment, absorbing hundreds of thousands of workers in the coming
years."

Free enterprise?
The governing Communist Party has indicated that strict rules limiting
private enterprise will be relaxed and many more licenses will be
issued allowing people to become self-employed.

Existing private businesses will be allowed to employ staff for the
first time.


President Raul Castro has said the state's role in the economy must
shrink
A minority of Cuba workers already work for themselves, for example as
hairdressers and taxi-drivers, or running small family restaurants.

There is also a thriving black economy, with many trades people
working independently without proper permission from the state.

President Raul Castro outlined the changes in a speech in August,
saying the state's role in the economy had to be reduced.

"We have to end forever the notion that Cuba is the only country in
the world where you can live without working," he said.

Cuba's state-run economy has been gripped by a severe crisis in the
past two years that has forced it to cut imports.

It has suffered from a fall in the price for its main export, nickel,
as well as a decline in tourism.

Growth has also been hampered by the 48-year US trade embargo.

Mr Castro became Cuba's leader when his brother, Fidel Castro, stepped
aside because of ill-health in 20