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Unions call for guaranteed jobs for long term unemployed - guardian.co.uk

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Mon, 18/01/2010 - 12:19pm
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Unions call for guaranteed jobs for long term unemployed

• Figures next week expected to show economy out of the slump
• Firms will continue to shed jobs during the year, experts warn


The proposed guarantee will give anyone claiming Jobs Seekers Allowance (JSA) for 12 months a job paying the minimum wage for six months. Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

A coalition of labour market experts including the TUC, the Work Foundation and James Purnell MP - the former work and pensions secretary – will today urge the government to guarantee anyone claiming Jobs Seekers Allowance (JSA) for 12 months or longer be given a job.

The coalition argues that if the government fails to implement the so-called "universal jobs guarantee", unemployment will continue to rise for years after the recession ends. With official figures next week expected to show that the UK economy emerged from recession in the final three months of 2009 after six consecutive quarters of contraction, the coalition is warning of a repeat of the 1990s, when it took six years from the end of the recession for long-term unemployment to return to pre-recession levels. Official figures show that long-term unemployment peaked in spring 1993, with 1,243,000 people out of work for at least 12 months.

It was reported last week that the government is considering a scheme similar to the one suggested by the coalition, but Whitehall sources deny any decision has been made. A Labour source said: "Ministers are looking at exactly this kind of approach. Their first priority is youth employment but they are considering help for the very long term unemployed." In a letter to secretary of state for work and pensions Yvette Cooper, the coalition, says that unemployment remains a huge concern. "There must not be a repeat of the last two recessions, when millions of people were stuck in semi-permanent unemployment long after the economy had recovered," said TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.

"Long periods out of work can have a devastating impact on people's health and mass unemployment can crush communities. A Universal Job Guarantee would help prevent this. A job paying decent wages for at least six months provides the kind of experience employers want and gives an unemployed person the best possible chance of getting back to work."

Despite the claimant count falling for the first time since February 2008 in November, economists expect firms to continue to slash jobs.

Howard Archer, chief UK economist at IHS Global Insight, said: "Modest job-shedding is likely to persist for some time to come. Even if the economy does finally return to growth in the fourth quarter as seems probable, activity is still unlikely to be strong enough during much of 2010 to prevent further net job losses. Ongoing uncertainties and concerns over the strength and sustainability of any recovery are likely to encourage businesses to keep their labour forces as tight as possible in the near term at least."

The coalition said that employment delivered through a Job Guarantee, which would pay the minimum wage and last for at least six months, is the best way to give people the kind of genuine work experience that employers want. It would be based on the government's Future Jobs Fund, which guarantees everyone in between the ages of 18 and 24 who has been looking for work for a year will get an offer of a job, work experience, or training lasting at least 6 months.

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