Guaranteed Jobs for Long-Term Unemployed

James Purnell, former Work and Pensions secretary has joined forces with a coalition of labour market experts to call for job guarantees for jobseekers who have been unemployed for 12 months or more.

An alliance including, the Work Foundation, Demos, former Cabinet minister James Purnell and TUC have warned of the threat of repeating the same mistakes of the last two recessions, where unemployment was allowed to spin out of control. It was highlighted that in the last recession it took over 6 years for long-term unemployment to return to levels seen before the 1990s recession.

In a letter addressed to the Yvette Cooper, the Work and Pension Secretary, the coalition highlighted the social issues of prolonged unemployment such as an increase in mental health issues, breakdowns of relationships, alcoholism and homelessness.

The job guarantee scheme would work in the same fashion as the guarantee offer to young people between the ages of 18-24. The jobs would be provided through the Future Jobs Fund, the jobs would pay minimum wage and last for a minimum of six months. The coalition also states that the jobs would offer 'genuine work experience' that potential employers are looking for.

Chief economist at IHS Global Insight, Howard Archer stated that even if the economy does finally return to growth in the fourth quarter of this year, job cuts will continue to persist as financial activity will not be strong enough in 2010 to prevent further net job losses.

The guaranteed job scheme comes after new figures are expected to show another increase in unemployment. The figure for unemployment currently stands at 2.49 million, a rate of 7.9 per cent.

Job Centre Vacancies says: This is great news for the long-term unemployed, especially as figures are expected to show an increase in job cuts. I think it's also important to publicise the fact that long-term unemployment not only affects people financially but can have a devastating impact on people's health. The government seems to have overlooked this by-product of unemployment and need to act accordingly to avoid a repeat of earlier recessions.

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