Additional BGN 80 million are provided by the government to tackle unemployment in Bulgaria. Money will be directed to long-term unemployed and unskilled people. This is what Deputy Social Minister Zornitsa Rusinova told in front of the Bulgarian National Television.

The funds were approved yesterday at a meeting of the Monitoring Committee with the consent of the EC, the social partners, and non-governmental organizations.

The aim is to activate the hidden reserve, which the Bulgarian economy needs, pointed out Rusinova.

The financial resource in practice continues the "Work" program, which starts with national funds in September 2011. It is aimed at people who are permanently unemployed - without education, without qualification. At present, there are about 97,000 people registered with the labor offices.

The funds will be directed mainly to municipalities with unemployment above the national average, she said.

The idea is for the unemployed to be hired for various socially useful activities - construction, support for municipal activities.

The difference now is that the state provides the opportunity, with the financial support of the local employer or the local authorities, to include the unemployed in different activities and passing through a different types of work that will give them different kinds of skills. Both employers and people will be able to judge which work is right for them.

Rusinova admitted that the mechanism of the programs that were now in place was ineffective. It provided financial assistance to employers for a certain period of time when hiring unemployed people.

The goals that are being pursued now are the creation of working habits among the unemployed, the balance between employment and training, the acquisition of social skills, professional competencies and others.

Every ten people will have a mentor who will actually be one of the unemployed, the Deputy Minister of Labor explained.

In Bulgaria, the challenges are the hunger for the staff, the qualification of the people who have to take their seats in different companies and organizations, as well as the topic of youth and the long-term unemployed, Zornitsa Rusinova reported.

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