Under-Employment Masks Unemployment

Under-Employment Masks Unemployment / Rebeca Monzo
Posted on March 9, 2015

In recent years there have been a number of small properties which have
been converted into TRD (hard currency) shops, as well as into small
Caracol, Panamericana and CIMEX "container" stores and kiosks, all under
the same ownership: the State. Given that there are buildings that
remain underutilized, one might ask, What's behind all this? In those
old 1950s supermarkets — now badly deteriorated due to lack of
maintenance and repair — there are only four or five products currently
available through the antiquated and sadly all-too-famous ration book.

Each of these stores has on its payroll a minimum staff of directors,
economists, managers, cashiers and janitors even though the selection of
merchandise, which is almost identical all these stores, is very
limited. When supplies such as toilet paper, cooking oil or detergent —
to name just a few — run out in one of them, there is an equally short
supply in the others mainly because imported items such as these are
sold in the container stores. Only the supplies of electrical appliances
for sale at these stores are relatively stable due to their high prices.

Many citizens complain and wonder aloud why the old supermarkets are not
being modernized to consolidate all the timbiriches (small container
stores) that have been proliferating in their neighborhoods, especially
given their lack of basic requirements. This leaves only one small
establishment in any given neighborhood to carry the few products still
available through the ration book.

Converting architecturally magnificent houses into tiny shops is also an
unfortunate practice. The dramatic reuse and inadequate care to which
these buildings are subjected leads to deterioration and subsequent
damage. One such example is a building located on 47th Street between
Conill and Santa Ana in Nuevo Vedado. Designed by the architect Carlos
Ferrer Nadal and built in 1956, it is one of the jewels of modern Cuban
architecture.

In my very personal opinion, this is a way of disguising unemployment in
a country that produces almost nothing. By underemploying the staff of
these small stores, where three employees would essentially be enough to
provide a decent level of service, the size of the workforce can be
increased.

6 March 2015

Source: Under-Employment Masks Unemployment / Rebeca Monzo | Translating
Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/under-employment-masks-unemployment-rebeca-monzo/