Government Grants Support to Entrepreneurs
Image: YLE
This year, one million euros will be allocated to help fund hiring a first employee, while next year a total of 10 million euros will be granted.
According to Mauri Pekkarinen, the Minister of Trade and Industry, hiring a first employee poses several challenges. But once the infrastructure for the first hire is established, taking on more workers becomes much easier.
About 60 percent of Finnish businesses are operated by just one person. Plans for wage support to hire employees were already in the works during the last electoral term for a few areas. Now the government plans to expand the funding. Pekkarinen says the support will mainly be directed to regions which have been plagued by job cuts, like eastern and northern Finland.
The goal is to create jobs for a few thousand people. However the amount of financial support that will be offered for each entrepreneur is still up in the air.
YLE