The Vice-President conveyed his belief that "the Azores are on the right track" in the fight against unemployment.

Sérgio Ávila spoke on the sidelines of an audience granted to the representatives of the Association of Traders of the Historic Centre of Ponta Delgada. The government official mentioned the latest data released by the National Statistics Institute (INE), pointing out that "last year, there were less 2,441 unemployed in the Azores and a total of 2,153 Azoreans became employed."

"Although unemployment is still a significant problem in the Azores, last year we were able to considerably reduce unemployment and create jobs at an unprecedented pace in the last six years," stressed Sérgio Ávila.

For the government official, the INE data demonstrate that "despite the issue of unemployment and the long task that lies ahead of us to mitigate this problem, there are less 2,441 unemployed in the Azores, which represents an increase of 11.3 percent in the number of employed Azorean citizens."

Sérgio Ávila reiterated that any result will not be satisfactory "while there is still an unemployed Azorean." Nevertheless, the government official stressed that the current situation "is better" than that of the previous year.

"If we continue this strategy and strengthen our support measures, especially with the entry into force of the new Community Support Framework and the new incentive schemes to promote employment creation, we will be able to reinforce these results and reach levels of employment that are consistent with our goals," said the Vice-President of the Government.