The Government will allocate 2,803 million euros to active employment policies in 2023, which represents a record, the highest figure in history allocated to these items. It has been approved this morning by the Council of Ministers, and it will be distributed among the autonomous communities to promote employment, focusing especially on long-term unemployment (those who are unemployed for more than a year) and on those over 45 years of age.
“It is the largest investment of public funds to improve employability,” said the Vice President and Minister of Labor, Yolanda DÃaz, when announcing the measure, which includes a conditionality different from that of previous years. If until now the emphasis was placed on young people, now the efforts will focus on the long-term unemployed, many of whom are over 45 years of age.
“A worker who is 45 years old is surely in the prime of his professional career. Companies cannot do without such talent. Therefore, I appeal to the businessmen of our country: Hire them. Hire long-term unemployed people and those over 45 years of age,” DÃaz affirmed. This group, despite having fallen by 14%, still groups 1.2 million unemployed and constitutes, according to the vice president, the problem principal in Spain in terms of unemployment.
Of the 2,803 million euros approved for active employment policies, the fundamental part, a total of 2,572 million euros, will be financed by the budget of the Public State Employment Service (SEPE), while the rest, 231 million, will go in charge of the recovery plan. The final territorial distribution will be decided at the Employment and Labor Affairs Sectoral Conference that will take place in the coming weeks and will be based
On the other hand, the Council of Ministers has also approved the preliminary draft of the Integral Law of the Social Economy, which makes a new definition of the cooperative movement, seeking to improve its activity and its functionality. Specifically, the internal functioning of cooperatives must be adapted to the new forms of communication and participation based on new technologies. In addition, the Equality Committee will be created to supervise equality plans in the operation of cooperatives.
