Brasília, 10/16/2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - At the moment, 47% of the unemployed in Brazil are young people between the ages of 16 and 24. In order to get more of them into the job market, the government has sent congress a bill establishing the First Job project (Primeiro Emprego).

In a speech yesterday explaining the bill, Remigio Todeschini, the secretary for Employment Policy at the Ministry of Labor, said that the government's goal was to reach 250,000 youths by the end of 2004. Todeschini declared that what had to be done was raise their skills level. He added that the project was aimed specifically at youths from low-income families, Afro-Brazilian women and the physically handicapped. (AB)