Labour, Social Security and Welfare Minister Yiannis Vroutsis announced on February 17 the launch of three new employment programmes to help jobless citizens re-enter the labour market.

The three programmes are: Enterprise Subsidy Programme to encourage businesses to hire unemployed aged 30-66 years old, which involves a full salary and insurance for one year, budgeted at €54 million.

The second is the Enterprise Grant Programme with up to 10,000 beneficiaries for actions on a local level, targeting projects tailored to local labour markets and local actions for the social inclusion for vulnerable groups, totaling €17 million.

The third is the Interventions for Socially Vulnerable Groups (EKO) which involves coherent actions for social inclusion and integration into the labour market for vulnerable groups, amounting to €79.56 million. The total budget is just over €1.5 billion.