Gov’t implements new program to fight unemployment

TIRANA, Jan. 14 – The Albanian government has started a new project in its effort to reduce unemployment, hoping to better assist job seekers in their efforts.
The government has founded the Albanian Employment Agency, which will provide several services at its employment offices country wide. The first one opened in Tirana.
Minister of Social Welfare and Youth Erion Veliaj said that creation of job is the new Socialist-led government’s top priority.
“Opening of this office will follow with opening of other agencies in the cities of Durres and Elbasan, while free job seeking services will be available to all jobseekers across the country,” Veliaj said.
All companies and businesses will be asked to give to provide employment offices with a list of their openings.
Prime Minister Edi Rama considered the project as the first step toward fulfillment of the government’s major objective – employment growth.
“It is the first harbinger of the new season in the relations of the state with job-seekers,” he said.
Head of the European Union Delegation to Albania, Ambassador Ettore Sequi, also supported the project, stressing that unemployment was an issue in the EU countries too and that it could not be solved overnight.
“Determination and reforms are the key to change. This is the reason that in the European Union the issue of unemployment is considered very seriously and Albania is doing the same thing too,” Sequi said, stressing the need for a national strategy on employment.
Albania had a 12.8-percent unemployment rate in 2013, according to Bank of Albania. From 1993 until 2013, Albania unemployment rate averaged 14.7 percent reaching an all-time high of 22.3 percent in November of 1993 and a record low of 12.1 percent in December of 1996.