Employers in 20 areas of high unemployment across the UK are to be given wage subsidies in order to encourage them to hire 18-to-24 year olds who have been out-of-work for six months.
The initiative is part of the government’s £1 billion Youth Contract announced in November in a bid to tackle record levels of youth unemployment – the number of unemployed under-25s hit more than a million in the three months to April.
But deputy prime minister Nick Clegg announced at a jobs summit held by the CBI employers’ lobby group today that the coalition government planned to cut the qualification period for young people eligible for help under the scheme from nine to six months in 20 unemployment black spots.
The subsidy being proposed, which will be £2,275 per person, is equivalent to half of the UK’s youth minimum wage and will be provided to firms in support of candidates during their first six months of employment.
The money will be particularly targeted at employers operating in 17 youth unemployment ‘hotspots” in areas that are experiencing much higher jobless rates than the national average – the north east and north west of England, Yorkshire, Humberside and Wales.
Hotspots within these regions include Blaenau Gwent, Hartlepool and Wolverhampton. Three areas have also been singled out in Scotland for special attention – Clackmannanshire, North Ayrshire and West Dunbartonshire.
But John Cridland, director general of the CBI, warned that, while the Youth Contract had made some headway, the 47 employment initiatives currently on offer to employers in England alone simply had to be simplified and made easier to navigate for it to become really effective.
“Business will step up, but government has to meet it halfway. If ever there was a case of not being able to see the wood for the trees, this is it. Confusion dilutes well-intentioned policies and the impact they should have, and we cannot have our young people being denied life-changing opportunities,” he said.
