Financial incentives to employers hiring youth and elderly people

A new instrument Support for Employment financed from the European Social Fund has been launched to facilitate employment of persons encountering difficulties on the labour market and encourage employers to create more jobs. Employers intending to hire youth under 29 years of age or persons above 54 years of age can apply for partial compensation of labour costs. The Ministry of Social Security and Labour has earmarked EUR 40.5 million for the instrument.

“These financial incentives will strengthen motivation of employers to  create more jobs and enable job searchers and inactive persons who find it more difficult to find employment on the labour market to be hired,” Minister of Social Security and Labour Algimanta Pabedinskienė says.

Employers will be eligible to receive compensation of 23.3% of the calculated wages for employees. If a youth under 29 years of age is a first-time employee, compensation of labour costs will be available for up to 12 months. If a company hires a person above 54 years of age who was out of work for the last 6 months, compensation will be available for up to 24 months.

“Compensation of labour costs is available to private and public legal persons (except for budgetary institutions), branches or representative offices of legal persons as well as natural persons that hire an employee and submit an application to INVEGA. Moreover, employers will be able to apply at any time, whenever they have a need to do so,” UAB Investicijų ir verslo garantijos (INVEGA) CEO Audrius Zabotka says.

During the implementation period of the instrument one company will be eligible for a total compensation of up to EUR 200,000. One company will be able to apply for an unlimited number of employees for compensation of labour costs.

It is expected that 5,000 elderly people above 54 years of age and 30,000 youths between 18 and 29 years of age will be hired under the instrument.

A total of two calls for proposals will be published under the instrument Support for Employment. The first call for proposals will cover EUR 15 million and applications will be accepted until 28 February 2019, while the second call for proposals is scheduled to be published in the first quarter of 2019 and will cover over EUR 25 million.

The application form can be found on the website of the EU Structural Funds www.esinvesticijos.lt or www.invega.lt. The eligibility of applications will be determined by INVEGA.

About the instrument Support for Employment

The instrument Support for Employment which will be implemented in the 2014–2020 financing period follows up on the activities under the global grant instrument Support for First Job of the Operational Programme for the Development of Human Resources 2007–2013. The continuity of the instrument and specific financial incentives to employers will ensure opportunities for persons encountering difficulties to integrate into the labour market: youths will be able to test themselves and acquire their first job skills, while elderly persons will be able to continue working and remain active on the labour market. The state support in providing financial incentives to employers that hire young people under 29 years of age with no work experience and/or people above 54 years of age is expected to promote a different approach to job creation for persons who are not always fully prepared to compete on the labour market or are unable to do so smoothly for some reason.

The instrument is implemented by INVEGA.