By Eliane Portillo

President Felipe Calderón said on Tuesday that the current labor law limits employment, and urged political parties to approve a labor reform that would allow the creation of more and better jobs.

It is necessary to stop hindering employment in Mexico. One of the biggest obstacles in creating more jobs is the current labor law, which is obsolete, Calderón added. He noted that the current labor law also prevents youth and women from finding full- or part-time jobs.

During the launching of the Training Scholarships: Youth Working program, Calderón said that it is important that lawmakers approve a reform. In fact, some parties already support the reform. But there are some parties that do not approve of the reform or have said that they will, but do nothing about it, Calderón added.

I urge the Congress, especially those parties who have not fully approved the reform, to help us create more and better jobs, President Calderón said.

Accompanied by the head of the Secretariat of Labor in Morelos, Rosalinda Vélez Juárez, and the governor of Morelos, Marco Antonio Adame, Calderón noted that in 2011, the federal government created 591,000 new jobs.

The president said that job creation is affected by the fact that companies require personnel with specific training, and many people looking for a job don’t have training.

He said that the BECATE program (an employment program that offers economic aid and training), the Employment Portal and employment fairs will help combat unemployment, and the labor reform would help creating in a new employment model.

He said that creating jobs for youth is a tool to battle insecurity and delinquency in Mexico. Calderón added that the more jobs young people have, the less criminals we will have on these streets.

Calderón added that the 2012 BECATE program is aimed at having more kids with a scholarship and less criminals.

He noted that this is unprecedented in Mexico, as the federal government is paying for the training of people so that companies don’t have to spend on it.

Calderón revealed that 70 percent of the beneficiaries of BECATE end up working in companies where they were trained, which is why it is such an efficient program.