<TABLE id=msgUN cellSpacing=3 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD id=msgUNsubj vAlign=top>Coffeeshop Chit Chat - How PM Brown is helping jobless in UK</TD><TD id=msgunetc noWrap align=right>
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</NOBR> </TD><TD class=msgDate noWrap align=right width="30%">4:22 am </TD></TR><TR class=msghead><TD class=msgT noWrap align=right width="1%" height=20>To: </TD><TD class=msgTname noWrap width="68%">ALL <NOBR></NOBR></TD><TD class=msgNum noWrap align=right>(1 of 4) </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgleft width="1%" rowSpan=4></TD><TD class=wintiny noWrap align=right>5237.1 </TD></TR><TR><TD height=8></TD></TR><TR><TD class=msgtxt><TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>Brown pledges $1b to spur hiring
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD>Firms will be paid to recruit those jobless for more than six months
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<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->LONDON: Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday pledged £500 million (S$1.1 billion) to encourage hiring and counter rising unemployment, as the British economy slipped into its deepest recession in almost three decades.
Meeting business and union leaders, he will offer as part of the plan £2,500 payments to employers to recruit and train those who have been unemployed for at least half a year, according to the Department for Work and Pensions.
'Because the risk of long-term unemployment increases as skills and confidence depreciate, we are today setting out a new guarantee of intensive support for anyone still unemployed after six months,' Mr Brown said.
The proposal followed a £20 billion package of mainly tax cuts he announced last November. It mirrors European counterparts in pushing new stimulus as the economic slump deepens.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is planning a ¥100 billion (S$200 billion) fund for companies after pushing a ¥50 billion package of tax cuts and loans last year.
Yesterday's meeting on tackling joblessness came a day after Mr Brown and Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling met Britain's top bankers to discuss reviving lending.
The British economy may shrink by 2.9 per cent this year, the steepest contraction since 1980, with as many as two million people claiming unemployment benefits, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.
Joblessness in November rose at its fastest pace since 1991 to 1.86 million, and banks, retailers and manufacturers across Britain had announced plans since then to lay off tens of thousands more.
Mr Brown's plans came two months after the Conservative opposition proposed payments of £2,500 to employers who take on people unemployed for more than three months.
At the time, Labour's pensions minister, Mr Tony McNulty, described the idea as 'desperate stuff' and argued that 'the incentive is too small, and many of these 'new' jobs will simply displace other people seeking work'.
Yesterday, Mr McNulty's boss, Mr James Purnell, said the government's plans were better than the opposition's because they would spend less money on people who would have found jobs anyway.
'We're making sure that we reduce the deadweight costs precisely by targeting people who have been out of work for six months,' he told BBC radio. 'About 70 per cent of people get back into work within six months. That's the point at which people start to lose self-esteem and their skills get out of date.'
The British Chambers of Commerce said training and wage subsidies should be considered in the government's effort to reduce unemployment. It also criticised a plan to increase employer social charges, known as National Insurance contributions, starting in 2011.
'The government should abandon plans to tax job creation,' its director-general, Mr David Frost, said in a statement. 'We must learn the lessons from previous recessions and ensure that new solutions are found to problems of large-scale unemployment.' BLOOMBERG
[email protected]
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</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- headline one : end --></TD></TR><TR><TD>Firms will be paid to recruit those jobless for more than six months
</TD></TR><TR><TD><!-- show image if available --></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<!-- START OF : div id="storytext"--><!-- more than 4 paragraphs -->LONDON: Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday pledged £500 million (S$1.1 billion) to encourage hiring and counter rising unemployment, as the British economy slipped into its deepest recession in almost three decades.
Meeting business and union leaders, he will offer as part of the plan £2,500 payments to employers to recruit and train those who have been unemployed for at least half a year, according to the Department for Work and Pensions.
'Because the risk of long-term unemployment increases as skills and confidence depreciate, we are today setting out a new guarantee of intensive support for anyone still unemployed after six months,' Mr Brown said.
The proposal followed a £20 billion package of mainly tax cuts he announced last November. It mirrors European counterparts in pushing new stimulus as the economic slump deepens.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is planning a ¥100 billion (S$200 billion) fund for companies after pushing a ¥50 billion package of tax cuts and loans last year.
Yesterday's meeting on tackling joblessness came a day after Mr Brown and Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling met Britain's top bankers to discuss reviving lending.
The British economy may shrink by 2.9 per cent this year, the steepest contraction since 1980, with as many as two million people claiming unemployment benefits, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.
Joblessness in November rose at its fastest pace since 1991 to 1.86 million, and banks, retailers and manufacturers across Britain had announced plans since then to lay off tens of thousands more.
Mr Brown's plans came two months after the Conservative opposition proposed payments of £2,500 to employers who take on people unemployed for more than three months.
At the time, Labour's pensions minister, Mr Tony McNulty, described the idea as 'desperate stuff' and argued that 'the incentive is too small, and many of these 'new' jobs will simply displace other people seeking work'.
Yesterday, Mr McNulty's boss, Mr James Purnell, said the government's plans were better than the opposition's because they would spend less money on people who would have found jobs anyway.
'We're making sure that we reduce the deadweight costs precisely by targeting people who have been out of work for six months,' he told BBC radio. 'About 70 per cent of people get back into work within six months. That's the point at which people start to lose self-esteem and their skills get out of date.'
The British Chambers of Commerce said training and wage subsidies should be considered in the government's effort to reduce unemployment. It also criticised a plan to increase employer social charges, known as National Insurance contributions, starting in 2011.
'The government should abandon plans to tax job creation,' its director-general, Mr David Frost, said in a statement. 'We must learn the lessons from previous recessions and ensure that new solutions are found to problems of large-scale unemployment.' BLOOMBERG
[email protected]
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