30K young Italians enroll in EU jobs program in first week

(ANSA) - Rome, May 9 - Some 30,000 people have signed up for a new European Union youth jobs program that kicked off in Italy and Europe on May 1, the labor ministry said Friday.
    EU countries endorsed the program, called Youth Guarantee, in April 2013. The idea is make sure that every young person in Europe is offered a good-quality job, further education or work-focused training within four months after leaving education or after becoming unemployed.
    In Italy, where unemployment for under-25s is over 40%, unemployed people under 30 can sign up on the labor ministry website www.garanziagiovani.gov.it or with regional authorities, and they will be contacted with a job offer or a training alternative within four months.
    So far, 21,189 have signed up on the national website and 8,747 on regional ones, the ministry said.
    The Youth Guarantee program has a two-year budget of 1.513 billion euros, with 1.134 billion euros in EU funding and the rest financed by Rome.