smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

Small businesses could be paid up to £2,500 for each person they employ who has been out of work for six months or more, under new governmental plans.

Prime minister Gordon Brown is set to have talks with the business community today to outline how jobs can be saved in the current economic downturn.

The plans suggested by the government will help to combat the current 1.8 million people who are unemployed in the UK, with this being predicted to rise to three million by 2010 by some economists.

James Purnell, the work and pensions secretary, is set to outline the £500 million scheme today, which will reward businesses who recruit and train a new staff member who was previously unemployed.

He told the BBC that the government is trying to learn from previous recessions, saying: 'We don't want to waste a generation of people, as has happened in the past.'

Derek Simpson, joint general secretary of Unite, the workers union, says the plans are good, but need to be accompanied by proposals to save current jobs.

'The government needs to step in to ensure that these particularly skilled jobs are not lost because once lost they'll never return.'

However, the Conservatives have described the plans as 'not going far enough'.

The plans accompany proposals from John Denham last week to increase apprenticeship numbers by 35,000.

There are currently no comments on this article