The Minister for Employment and Social Security, Fátima Báñez, held a meeting with the Secretary of Labor of the United States, Thomas Perez, at which they reviewed the situation of the Spanish labour market and agreed to enhance bilateral collaboration between the two countries on employment issues.
This meeting provides continuity to the previous meeting held between Minister Báñez and Secretary Perez in Melbourne in September 2014 within the framework of the meeting of employment ministers of the G-20.
The minister remarked that, following the shedding of 3.3 million jobs under the previous government, the government headed up by Mariano Rajoy approved the labour reform in 2012, an ambitious yet balanced piece of legislation that, firstly, enabled job losses to be halted, and now that the economy has started to grow again, is allowing jobs to be created at a rate of 3.57% year-on-year.
"In just the last two years we have recovered one million jobs since hitting minimum levels, although there is still a long way to go", pointed out Fátima Báñez, who explained that for this reason, the government has also embarked on a new "silent" reform of the labour market, otherwise known as the reform of active employment policies.
Hence, the system has been reformed to improve the efficiency and efficacy of the system, with enhanced intermediation between the supply and demand of workers, more and better training, greater coordination between the different public employment services, and an ongoing assessment of the results.
In this regard, Fátima Báñez highlighted that the United States Congress approved the Workforce Investment Opportunities Act in July 2014, a piece of legislation focused on improving labour intermediation, training for employment and the certification of skills.
She also highlighted the boost given by the Department of Labor headed up by Thomas Perez to the development of activation policies, particularly through public-private collaboration systems.
For this reason, Fátima Báñez proposed stepping up bilateral collaboration between the two countries on the issue of active employment policies, dual training and youth employment, as well as assistance for the long-term unemployed, enhancing the exchange of information and best practices.
They also tackled facilitating the movement of highly qualified workers between the two countries, an issue on which Spain has adopted very advanced legislation to the benefit of American companies, entrepreneurs and scientists.
As a continuation of this meeting, a round of contacts will be started up between the two departments which will culminate with the signing of a memorandum at the next meeting of G-20 ministers in Turkey.
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