Half a hundred companies with a global turnover of more than 55 billion euros could collectively increase the recruitment of young people by 10% by 2026. It is the estimate of the José Neves Foundation, which, in collaboration with the government through the Secretariat of Labour, challenged 50 large entities, employing more than 200,000 people, to sign the “More and better jobs for young people” pact, presented today in Lisbon.
The aim is not only to promote the employability of employees up to the age of 29, but also to combat job insecurity. So with this agreement “it is expected that more than 19% of the young people of these companies will have a permanent contract,” revealed to DN / Dinheiro Vivo, the executive president of the José Neves Foundation, Carlos Oliveira.
Signatories to the agreement include companies from various sectors, from banking (CGD, Millennium BCP, BPI and Santander) to telecommunications (Altice and NOS), through energy (EDP, REN and Galp), insurance (Tranquilidade and Fidelidade) or civil construction (Mota-Engil, DST and Casais). CTT, Bial, Deloitte, Feedzai, Bosh, Douro Azul, RTP and Media Capital are also part of this pilot, which aims to improve the employability of young people.
But the idea is to expand the agreement to more companies and transform the initiative into a national movement to promote the improvement of the quality of jobs for young people. Interested employers can express their intention to become a member by e-mail [email protected] and the website http://joseneves.org/pacto.
The 2026 targets are differentiated based on each company’s potential margin of advancement, so that commitments can vary between three percentage points and 12 points through 2026 in the following indicators: new hires; percentage of young people who stay in the company two years in a row; number of qualified employees with a minimum wage equal to the entry wage for a senior technician in public administration (1320 euros); weight of young people with a permanent contract; and the number of employees up to the age of 29 with a higher education who are in positions that match their level of qualification.
The pact provides for a semi-annual meeting to monitor the work carried out, analyze it and share good practices, in the presence of the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the government and companies. There will also be annual reports presenting the results of the covenant to improve the employability of young employees.
José Neves Foundation Executive Chairman Carlos Oliveira emphasizes that this is “a very important agreement for the country, which unites companies and public entities to respond to a reality that the country has been grappling with for too many years: the fragility of the employment of young people, even the most qualified, who tend to be more exposed to unemployment and have low wages, and with a weak evolution in real terms over the past decade”. “Something needs to be done to change the state of affairs and the pact will make it possible to measure its impact and results,” he added.
Youth unemployment in Portugal has actually improved and stood at 18.2% in November 2022 among those under the age of 25 (down 4.3 percentage points from the same period of the same period), according to the latest data from INE. However, it is still more than double the global unemployment rate (6.4%).
The “Pact for more and better jobs for young people” follows the launch of the White Paper, in December 2022, an initiative of the José Neves Foundation, the Youth Employment Observatory and the International Labor Organization for Portugal, with the strong support of the President of the Republic.
Salomé Pinto is a journalist for Dinheiro Vivo
Source: DN
