The board of the Public Employment Service on Wednesday approved the increase by 6,500 additional places of an employment programme targeting the long-term unemployed aged 55-67 years old, allocating 117 million euros to its budget.
The move had been announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a meeting with beneficiaries of the programme on Friday.
Under the programme, the hiring of employees supported by the programme in full-time jobs is subsidised for a period of 12 months, with the option to extend for an additional 12 months at the end of that time, at a rate of 75 pct for the combined cost of salary and social insurance contributions, up to the sum of 750 euros a month.
Originally started in September 2017 but with initially low coverage of offered positions, with fewer than 1,500 hirings in total, the programme took off after improvements in 2020 and there is coverage of 8,000 places in a total of 8,500 available.
Participants include bodies and agencies in the wider public sector, such as municipal companies, hospitals and others, throughout Greece.