At the opening ceremony of the international conference on public employment, the Minister of Interior said that public employment programmes and the mandatory training courses are capable of leading unemployed people back to the labour market.

According to Minister Pintér, before the 2011 launch of the public employment programme, one third of people who were capable of working were unemployed. It had to be defined whether the problem was related to these people’s inability to work or if the market was simply unable to absorb this number of employees. He added that the Government tried in several ways to move these people from the world of social benefits towards the world of work.

Minister Pintér pointed out that there were 52 ways for healthy people full of vitality to apply for social benefits without having to work at all.   

The Minister of Interior explained that at the start of the public employment programme it was of utmost importance to include training courses in the programme, hence leading job seekers back to the labour market. Another important feature of the public employment programme is that it creates real value and serves the good of the community, unlike the “façade of activity” promoted by the former government.

Minister Pintér emphasized the importance of co-operation between the municipalities, the Government and employment offices. He added that in its first year, 250 thousand people were employed within the public employment programme, of whom 53 percent received basic training, 22 percent were over the age of 50, and 70 percent worked 8 hours-a-day.  

13 thousand people took part in agricultural training and 2800 in other training programmes. The Minister declared: public employment must be continued in a way that does not limit the market but instead helps its development. He added that the next stage  would be the establishment of social co-operatives that also help job seekers to become part of the market economy.

(MTI)