25 the data in Table. In the last five years unemployment is at an average of nearly 13 percent. The rate of unemployment was at its lowest in 2008 with a percentage of 12.5. (my
own calculations, data taken from Table According to the tables in Appendix 1 & 2 only a small percentage of these unemployed people receive unemployment benefits, which is social assistance granted to unemployed people according to the law only for the first year of unemployment. On the other hand the percentage of long term unemployment is significantly high.
This group of people, because of the longtime of disconnection from labor market, finds it difficult to be adapted to the new labor market needs. It is necessary to invest time and money on the training
of long term unemployed people, in order to make them an active part of the labor market. For this reason, it is more convenient to keep the percentage of this group at a low level. If the labor market is seen
from the gender perspective, the reregistered unemployment rate of female is higher than that of males. The lowest unemployment rate for male and female is registered respectively in 2008 with a percentage of 10.4 and in 2011 with a percentage of 14.3. The difference in unemployment rate between male and female in 2000 is 4.4 percent while in 2011 this difference is only 1.9 percent. This shows that females are becoming more active in the labor market. Even if we compare the decrease in unemployment in male from 2000 to 2011, this is estimated at 2.5 percent while for female the decrease in unemployment from 2000 to 2011 is 5%. This highlights what it is mentioned above. (My own calculations, the data are taken from Table 1.)