Long-term unemployment in the country is on the rise, due to the health crisis that has begun to show its teeth for good in the labor market. However, in addition to the recession caused by the pandemic and its containment measures last year, the increase in the number of the long-term unemployed is largely due to the automatic renewal of the registration of the unemployed in the lists of the Public Employment Service (PES) of the Department of Labor.
It is noted that in the framework of the measures taken by the PES to avoid the spread of the coronavirus, from March last year, the registered unemployed are automatically renewed. As a result, one in six unemployed people in October last year were registered with the PES for more than six months.
Specifically, according to the latest analysis of the Department of Labor, which concerns the month of October 2020, the number of unemployed who were registered at the offices of the PES for more than 6 months reached 19,667 people in October last year, an increase of 13,167 people or 202.6% compared to the same month of 2019. This number represents 62% of the total registered unemployed. A significant increase was recorded in October and the number of unemployed who were registered at the PES offices for more than a year, after reaching 8,550 people, recording an increase of 4,729 people or 123.8% compared to October 2019. According to the Department of Labor, the occupational categories that present the largest concentration of the long-term unemployed are service workers and salesmen (2,182 people), unskilled workers (1,929 people), office workers (1,509 people) and new entrants (729 people). It is worth noting, however, that in the context of the emergency measures to support employment that are implemented, those unemployed who have exhausted their unemployment benefit – which lasts around six months – continue to be supported by the state through the special plan to support the unemployed. Working. In fact, the plan that will be implemented in January, as announced by the Ministry of Labor, will cover those who received unemployment benefits and exhausted the right to payment within the period from January 2020 to December 2020.
