ZAGREB, Jan 9 (Hina) - The head of the Croatian Employment Bureau (HZZ), Sanja Crnkovic Pozaic, on Wednesday presented employment programmes for six categories of the unemployed, whose purpose is to stimulate the employment of less
employable groups of citizens. The government will concentrate its efforts on the employment of young people, unskilled and highly skilled workers without work experience, middle-aged persons with work experience, disabled persons and former soldiers, as well as stimulate market-oriented education, Pozaic said at a press conference. The programmes were announced yesterday by Prime Minister Ivica Racan, who said the Government was aware that the projects would not solve the problem of unemployment but one had to start with something. The costs of the six programmes in the next five years will amount to 1.229 billion kuna, of which 707 million will be used for the programme "From University to Work", which
ZAGREB, Jan 9 (Hina) - The head of the Croatian Employment Bureau
(HZZ), Sanja Crnkovic Pozaic, on Wednesday presented employment
programmes for six categories of the unemployed, whose purpose is
to stimulate the employment of less employable groups of citizens.
The government will concentrate its efforts on the employment of
young people, unskilled and highly skilled workers without work
experience, middle-aged persons with work experience, disabled
persons and former soldiers, as well as stimulate market-oriented
education, Pozaic said at a press conference.
The programmes were announced yesterday by Prime Minister Ivica
Racan, who said the Government was aware that the projects would not
solve the problem of unemployment but one had to start with
something.
The costs of the six programmes in the next five years will amount to
1.229 billion kuna, of which 707 million will be used for the
programme "From University to Work", which should stimulate youth
employment, Pozaic said.
She expects that in 2002 the programme will result in the employment
of 7,000 young people and another 11,500 in 2003. The six programmes
should provide employment for more than 36,000 unemployed.
According to HZZ data, the unemployment rate among persons under
the age of 27 is 42% and Pozaic believes that their unemployment is
most expensive for the state because it causes a brain-drain and
young and highly educated people find employment relatively easily
in comparison to other categories.
Pozaic said the countries of the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD) annually spend between 1 and 1.5
percent of their Gross Domestic Product for stimulating employment
whereas Croatia will spend 0.36% of its GDP for employment next
year, thus catching up with other countries in transition.
(hina) sb rml