Ministry Promises Active Employment Policy Measures

Ljubljana, 1 March

Labour Minister Janez Drobnic announced active employment policy measures on Tuesday, which the minister promises would increase employment rather than prevent unemployment. According to Drobnic, the ministry has a budget of almost SIT 21bn (EUR 87.59m) in 2005 for implementing the measures.

Drobnic explained that this year's programme foresees a total of 149,900 people to be included in the active employment policy. The measures, according to the minister, are targetting the first employment seekers, the long-term unemployed, persons without or with inadequate professional education, the elderly, the disabled and the especially vulnerable social groups.
The ministry plans to reduce regional differences in employment, minimise structural unemployment and improve the education level of the unemployed in accordance with the demand on the labour market and increase the labour force mobility among the sectors and regions.
One of the main priorities is to integrate receivers of social aid into the employment programmes, since the number of people under 27 who benefit from social aid has doubled in the past two years. Drobnic estimates this has less to do with poverty than with the youth asserting their right.
Financial means for the programme's implementation have been secured from the state budget (SIT 15.8bn - EUR 65.9m) and the European Social Fund (SIT 5.1bn - EUR 21.27m).
The programme assigns most funds to training and direct creation of jobs, including subventions for the employment of the disabled and compensation of parts of salaries in order to preserve jobs.
The ministry said it came up with these measures after examining the movement in the labour market in the past years and an evaluation for this year, both of which show a dropping unemployment trend.
Employment is to increase by 0.3 percent according to the ministry's evaluation, while unemployment is to decrease a bit more. Registered unemployment is to fall from last year's 10.4 to 10.2 percent and surveyed unemployment from 6.4 to 6.1.
According to the ministry's data, unemployment decreased in all areas in comparison to last year, except for the first job seekers and women.

Ministry Promises Active Employment Policy Measures

More articles from this issue:

Archive