• Submitted by: manso
• Business and Economy
• 09 / 15 / 2010

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Cuba's leaders expect that many of the 500,000 state workers it plans to lay off will move into such jobs as raising rabbits, painting buildings or making bricks, but concede that many will fail for lack of skill or initiative, the Associated Press reports.

AP writers Andrea Rodriguez and Paul Haven report today that they have access to a document that includes a timetable for layoffs and spells out the kind of jobs that the government sees workers moving into.

The 26-page documents calls for cutting 500,000 state workers by March 2011, with workers at the ministries of sugar, public health, tourism and agriculture going first and those in civil aviation, and the ministries of foreign relations and social services, going last.

The first to be chopped, the AP says, are those state workers with low productivity, those who lack discipline and those not interested in work.

Many of the newly unemployed will be urged to form private cooperatives or join foreign-run companies and joint ventures.

Some will be encouraged to set up their own small business — particularly in the areas of transport and house rental -- or to raise animals, grow vegetables, drive taxis and repair automobiles.

The document, the AP says, warns that many of these businesses will face major problems because of lack of sufficient experience, skills or initiative among the newly laid-off workers.

(Posted by Doug Stanglin)

Source: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/09/