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1. The Committee notes the Government's report for the period ending June 1992 containing detailed information - albeit mostly for 1991 only - on the employment situation and the labour market policies implemented. The Committee refers to OECD data and notes that owing to moderate growth in employment there was a slight drop in the unemployment rate which fell from 11.5 per cent in 1990 to 11 per cent in 1991. Since the end of the reporting period, however, employment has ceased to grow and the unemployment rate reached 11.6 per cent in 1992. Furthermore, the major structural characteristics of unemployment and its distribution have remained, for the most part, unchanged. At best there has been a slight attenuation of the regional distribution of unemployment and a slight narrowing of the gap between male and female unemployment rates. Long-term unemployment which still affects approximately 70 per cent of the unemployed, and unemployment of over 30 per cent among the under-25 age group are still particularly worrying.

2. The Government's report recalls the labour market measures to which the Committee already referred in previous comments. It notes in this connection that there was an appreciable drop in the number of training-work contracts, which fell from 470,000 in 1990 to approximately 200,000 in 1992 although, in 50 per cent of the cases, this type of contract has led to permanent jobs for the young people holding them. It would be grateful if in its next report the Government would give the reasons for this drop and continue to provide detailed information on the scope of the various labour market measures and the results obtained. The Committee also notes that Act No. 223 of 23 July 1991 introduced new accompanying measures for enterprise restructuring and incentives to recruit redundant workers and the long-term unemployed. Promotion of the employment of women was also stepped up during the period by the adoption of Act No. 125 of 10 April 1991 providing for positive action in the area of training and employment, and Act No. 215 of 25 February 1992 introducing incentives for women to establish enterprises. The Committee asks the Government to provide information on the effect that these new measures have had on the employment of the persons concerned.

3. With reference to its previous observation, the Committee notes that, in the Government's view, the implementation of the tripartite agreement of March 1991 for the development of the South demonstrates the interdependence of economic development policies and the essential role of the social partners. It would be grateful if the Government would provide any available assessment of the results obtained. The Committee also notes that following negotiations on wages policy, combating inflation and reducing the budget deficit, a new national collective agreement was concluded in July 1993, part of which deals with employment promotion. The Committee asks the Government to provide particulars of the above agreement indicating, more generally, how employment policy falls within "the framework of a coordinated economic and social policy". It hopes in this connection that the next report will indicate how the economic policy measures taken or envisaged in the areas of monetary, budgetary and fiscal policies, investment policy and regional development policy contribute to the pursuit of the objective of full, productive and freely chosen employment.