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At the moment, persons unemployed for more than a year make up 31% of all 83,464 unemployed in Latvia. This proportion is to be reduced to 15% by 2020.

Welfare Minister Uldis Augulis (Greens/Farmers) told a press conference today that, besides this priority, the Welfare Ministry's guidelines also dealt with reducing youth unemployment and unemployment among residents age 50 and older, fostering subsidized employment for persons with disabilities, and re-training and qualification raising programs for unskilled workers without a job.

A total of EUR 314 million has been earmarked in the state budget and European Union structural funds for attaining these goals until 2020.

According to the Welfare Ministry's Labor Market Policy Department Director Imants Lipskis, of this amount EUR 89.8 million will be spent on training of the unemployed, EUR 58.5 million on fostering long-term unemployed persons' return to the labor market, EUR 62.1 million on youth guarantees, EUR 57.9 million on employment measures, EUR 31 million on training of unskilled workers, and EUR 10.6 million on improving the quality of work environment.