Spain to invest €1.3bn to fight unemployment

Spain's cabinet meeting on Friday agreed to invest 1.342 billion euros (1.793 billion U.S. dollars) to combat high unemployment in the country. The government said at the press conference following a cabinet meeting that the money will be distributed among the 17 regions that make up the Spanish state. Statistics show that over 26 percent of the total workforce. in Spain are currently without a job. Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said the financial aid was aimed to integrate unemployed people into the labor market. Of the total of 1.342 billion euros, 951 million euros will be invested in vocational training, a further 361 million in measures to promote employment, while some 30 million euros will be used to modernize employment services. The Ministry of Employment published on Tuesday that the number of people unemployed had increased by 87,028 in October to more than 4.8 million. The National Institute of Statistics (INE), which uses a different calculation method, said in October that there were 5.9 million jobless Spaniards in the third quarter of 2013.