Queretaro, Qro. The state administration launched the Contigo Seguro de Desempleo program, which has a bag of 32 million pesos, to grant, for two months, a monthly support of 3,500 pesos to people who prove they have lost their jobs.
The local Secretary of Labor, Liliana San Martín Castillo, explained that the program is aimed at those who involuntarily lost their source of formal employment, anticipating reaching 5,000 beneficiaries.
The initiative contemplates people 18 years of age and older who are unemployed up to three months before requesting the support and who prove their residence in the state; In addition, they must present their formal withdrawal to the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS).
However, the central purpose is to link the worker with a company, in order to be placed in a new job.
“It is a program that is being implemented for the first time in the state (…) that pursues two specific objectives: one, to grant an economic amount, but the most important is to link them with a source of formal employment,” said the local official.
Although the program began operating on June 20, there are already about 200 pre-registrations of potential beneficiaries.
Interested persons must follow the five-step process: go to the offices of the State Employability Center, submit an application, attend an interview with a counselor, attend a workshop for job seekers and finally attend the appointments agreed with companies.
Meanwhile, they will be included in the job bank of the state agency, which currently has 6,000 formal positions, maintaining links with 296 companies, in addition to promoting them at job fairs.
It is estimated that, among the unemployed population, in the state of Queretaro there are 23,000 people who lost their jobs involuntarily and who are eligible for this program.
The secretary added that 78% of unemployed people usually take up to three months to return to the labor market; meanwhile, 49% find a place in less than a month.
Likewise, Governor Mauricio Kuri González highlighted that this program comes after two complex years of impact due to the Covid-19 pandemic.