Nearly 8.400 people in the past couple of years boosted their knowledge and competences required for employment as part of the EU-funded project "Support to the employment of young people, long-term unemployed and women". Some of them have managed to find a job through these active measures.

"8.400 people were trained and about 500 found jobs afterwards. The figure is not high, but it's encouraging giving hope that with trainings good results can be achieved and that unemployment rate can be reduced in the future," the director of the Employment Agency, Vlatko Popovski said.

Labour and Social Policy Minister Spiro Ristovski also agreed that the measures taken within the project had yielded positive results.

"It is expected the European Union to allocate a new second grant for active employment measures. In 2013, there will be a more dynamic plan with more funds envisaging many more people to be covered. With such active and aggressive employment policy, huge results can be produced," said Ristovski.

The EU-funded project “Support to the employment of young people, long-term unemployed and women” aimed to integrate young people, long-term unemployed and women in the labour market. In November 2010, the Employment Service Agency received 1.3 million EUR for implementing activities aimed to contribute to improvement of the employability of unemployed young people, long-term unemployed and women, by increasing their competences (knowledge, skills and attitude) and work experience.