The Barcelona City Hall brings 10,000 new workers into the labour market in the last two years

Barcelona (CNA).- The Barcelona City Hall followed up this Monday on an initiative to foster quality employment, two years after it was put into force. More than 160,000 beneficiaries, with 22,017 actions to support jobless people, 34,000 specific measures for young people, 100,000 trade school students, and 10,000 people who have found a new job after participating in one of those programmes are the results of those two years. The Barcelona mayor, Jordi Hereu, calls this balance “very positive.” The Town Hall has assured that the figures from the last two years indicate that the agreement’s objectives are the “best way of fighting the crisis”.
Hereu led the meeting with trade unions, business associations, and social agents, where he has offered a synthesis of these two years having the agreement into force. During this time, a sum of 55 million euros has been budgeted to serve the 160,000 received requests to participate in the initiative (some of the beneficiaries have participated in various services). The City Hall has stated that the initiative has resulted in a total of 10,000 people being able to find work. Moreover, thanks to the decentralization of offers, 2,107 participants have been able to participate in insertion and social dynamics courses in the various neighbourhoods of the city.

Hereu said, after the meeting and just before visiting one of the centres where the courses are being held, that “it is evident that the initiative is unfortunately an instrument that will have to be enlarged in the next few months in the face of economic uncertainties”. On this note, the Mayor has affirmed that “more than ever, it is very important to sum efforts with policies in order to generate quality jobs and fight unemployment, which is the main threat to our cohesion”. With this, Jordi Hereu also said that “the fight for quality employment is, after the last two years, the main priority for the city, its institutions, and its social and economic agents”.