Unemployment falls further, gov’t to promote part-time jobs

The National Employment Action Plan (ESDA) for 2003 aims to boost the trend toward part-time work and extend it to the public sector, said Labor Minister Dimitris Reppas, who released the plan to unions and employers for discussion yesterday; 30,000 unemployed people (60 percent of them women) are expected to be hired part-time in the public sector, particularly in social services. Other measures proposed include improving links between vocational training and employment and facilitating immigrants’ integration in the work force. “Our priority is the modern welfare state,” said Reppas, adding that high growth rates are a prerequisite for increasing employment. Unemployment fell about 1 percent in the first quarter of 2003 and 2.2 percent since 2000, while social spending rose 42.6 percent in the last five years, he noted.