second the combination of relatively high minimum wages taxes on labour and dismissal costs discourages employers from hiring inexperienced youth finally despite some recent initiatives labour market measures available at the public employment service for unemployed youth are not subject to the mutualobligations principle and their effectiveness is unknown the papandreou government is proposing to cut social security contributions for each new employee aged or younger hired by an sme provided the firm does not fire any worker to take advantage of the subsidies the subsidies would last four years and would amount to of social security contributions for the first year for the second year for the third year and for the fourth year the government also plans to introduce a year tax exemption for small businesses owned by young people in rural and semirural regions in addition an overhaul of workexperience programmes is envisaged so that the new programmes are sixmonth long focused on practical learning limited to the private sector offered only once per beneficiary and targeted on postsecondary graduates