Cut in social security pay to create jobs
Labor Minister Yiannis Vroutsis told a conference in Athens on Thursday that reducing social security contributions by 3.9 percent would help to create 30,000 jobs, but conceded that actually making that happen would not be easy.
Addressing an event titled “Unemployment: Social and Economic Problem” and organized by the Center of Planning and Economic Research (KEPE), Vroutsis said that the measures would be gradually introduced from 2016, and not immediately as Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras had implied in a recent television interview.
“This is no easy proposition. We have to find fiscal equivalents,” the minister said, without specifying which employer contributions and which social security benefits would be reduced.
Vroutsis also announced that programs for the employment of 73,000 young unemployed would start within January.
