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The ministry indicated that the employment rate among 15 to 24 year-olds has risen by 8 percentage points over the past five years, reaching 33.5% in the third quarter of 2015 and lagging 0.6 percentage points behind the EU average.

In the age group of 25-29 year-old people, the employment rate has increased by 7 percentage points over the past five years, to 76.6% in the third quarter of 2015, or 4 percentage points above the average EU figure.

Youth unemployment has also been dropping in Latvia in recent years, the Welfare Ministry reported. In the age group of 15-24, the unemployment rate has decreased by 20 percentage points on average from 2010 to 2015, reaching 16.2% in the third quarter of 2015, which is 4 percentage points below the EU average.

In the age group of 25-29 year-old people, unemployment stood at 12.4% in the third quarter of 2015, or 0.8 percentage points above the EU average. Over the past five years, the unemployment rate in this age group has dropped by 9 percentage points.

The Welfare Ministry has also concluded that 56% of the jobless youngsters in the age group of 15-29 year-olds are insufficiently educated to find work, namely, their education levels are lower than the average. In the age group of 15-24 year-old this figure is much higher and reaches 61%.

According to the report, the so called quality support has been provided to 11,000 youngsters aged 15 to 29 in the last five years, or 38% of all the young people to be involved in the Youth Guarantee Program from 2014 to 2018.

At the same time, 63,000 youngsters have been involved in employment activities, 17,000 in competition-boosting activities and 74,000 have received career consultations.

EUR 18,790,483 were spent on the implementation of the Youth Guarantee Program from 2014 to 2015, or 27% of the program's total budget.

The Youth Guarantee Program was launched in Latvia in 2014 and will continue until 2018.