Spain Creates Tax Break for Hiring as Youth Jobless Tops 40%

The Spanish government created tax breaks to encourage hiring young people and the long-term unemployed in a bid to lower the 43 percent youth jobless rate.

Companies will get a reduction of 75 percent to 100 percent in social-security taxes for offering part-time work to people up to 30 years old and the long-term jobless, Labor Minister Valeriano Gomez told a news conference in Madrid today. The incentives last a year in an attempt to spur employment in 2011.