Social programs

Registered unemployment fell by 3.18 percent in April, the Manpower Employment Organization (OAED) announced on Tuesday.
In its regular monthly report, OAED said the number of registered jobless individuals in the country not actively seeking a employment fell by 21.7 percent last month in comparison to the previous month.

The Bulgarian government and representatives of the trade unions and the employers' organisations reached an agreement on the conditions of retirement in the forthcoming years.

The proposal for a pension reform will be tabled to parliament and all three sides said that compromises were made, daily Dnevnik reports.

How much do they work?

OECD Chart: Hours worked, Total, Hours/worker, Annual, 2013 - 2013

The Turkish government plans to boost employment specifically for women by making the working conditions better and reducing the informal economy with the new reform package. 

Labor reforms targeted at reducing the informal economy and boosting employment, especially of women, were announced by Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu yesterday. 

The unemployment rate in Romania hit 5.29 percent at a national level at end-Dec., by 0.11 percent higher than in Nov. and by 0.36 percentage points lower than at end-Dec. 2013, says a release sent by the National Employment Agency to AGERPRES on Thursday.

Photo credit: (c) CONSTANTIN DUMA / AGERPRES ARCHIVE

Operational program Human Resources Development 2014-2020 was officially launched Thursday in Plovdiv.

The ceremony was attended by Ivaylo Kalfin, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labor and Social Policy.

The resources of the operational program for the 2014-2020 period amount to over BGN 2 B, according to reports of the BGNES news agency.

Over a third of Greek households (34.4 percent) had an annual income of no more that 10,000 euros last year, according to a survey conducted by the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen and Merchants (GSEVEE).

The unemployment rate in Turkey is continuing to rise. The figure was 10.5 percent in September, the highest level since the global financial crisis. Worse, the unemployment rate is expected to increase in the near future, while it is also getting more difficult to take necessary measures against this rise.

Planned changes to the system of maternity leave payments, promoted last week by the State Health Insurance Fund, FZOM, called "Speedy Payment of Maternity Leave", will encourage discrimination against women at the workplace, rights activists say.

The government is due to unveil on Tuesday its plans for an extended pilot scheme introducing a guaranteed minimum income to several parts of Greece.

The scheme will see some 700,000 people in 13 municipalities receive a total of between 850,000 and 1 million euros next year.