Canary Islands government to spend €75 million to combat unemployment

The Canary Islands government has decided not to wait for the approval of the general budget in April to implement measures to curb the current rate of unemployment in the Canary Islands which stands at 30.9%. The Council has decided to bring forward an “emergency plan for social unemployment” in the Canaries. The total expenditure of this project will be €75 million, funded entirely by regional resources.

The Canaries can not wait to see what resources will support employment this year from the mainland. This initiative will benefit about 12,000 unemployed Canarians through training programmes or job placement, in line with the 2012-2014 Training and Employment strategy plan approved last December. “The situation is critical and the Canary Islands can not wait and go on ‘standby’, so we created these adequate and effective measures to combat unemployment” said Margarita Ramos (Employment and Industry) in a recent press release.

A total of €20 million is for the re-insertion into work of 1,400 registered unemployed people through school workshops, €30 million will be allocated among councils and municipalities through agreements for the direct creation of 5,000 jobs, €20 million for municipalities with fewer than 95,000 inhabitants, €10 million to be shared between Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, La Laguna and Telde and another €5 million will be managed by NGOs for the placement of people with disabilities.

The plan includes a special call to combat youth unemployment, which has almost reached 50%. It will invest €3 million in a professional internship program, both in the private and in the government sector.

Government sources pointed out that these “first steps of the emergency plan” was not on the agenda of the Governing Council but Margarita Ramos gave all assurances that the funding would be available.