Cuba makes another job legal - real estate agents

Cuba makes another job legal: real estate agents
Published: Wednesday, 2 Oct 2013 | 10:34 AM ET
By: Michelle Caruso-Cabrera | CNBC Chief International Correspondent

Much attention was given to Cuba's recent decision to allow its athletes
to compete for foreign professional teams for the first time since the
1959 Castro revolution. Less noticed was another, and perhaps more
important, labor reform: the legalization of real estate agents.
Until now, real estate agents have had to work in the shadows, fearing
arrest. When CNBC traveled to Cuba last year, our news crew tried on
more than one occasion to speak with individuals who were working on
bringing buyers and sellers of homes together. No one returned our
calls—presumably because they were afraid to talk to a foreign news
crew. (See the embedded video for a more detailed report, from 2012.)

CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera has the details on the changes that
allows Cubans to buy and sell homes and cars, and the 181 categories of
jobs for those who want to be self-employed, as the Cuban government is
working on "perfecting socialism."
Now, it appears they might be allowed to emerge from the shadows and
give a push to a nascent real estate market on the island.

This latest move is one of a series of changes the communist government
has made in order to improve dire economic conditions.

Until a few years ago, everyone on the island was supposed to work for
the government—from doctors, to farmers, to waitresses and everyone in
between. Everyone was, in essence, a government employee. For real
estate agents, at least, that appears to have changed.

—By Michelle Caruso-Cabrera. Follow her on Twitter at @MCaruso_Cabrera.

Source: "Cuban private jobs: Cuba makes real estate agents legal" -
http://www.cnbc.com/id/101080613