Brown hosts job summit

Employers will get up to £2,500 for every unemployed person they recruit, ministers will announce. The "golden hello", intended to encourage firms to train people who have been out of work for more than six months, is part of a £500 million package to support the long-term unemployed. The emergency measures are to be unveiled at a jobs summit hosted by Prime Minister Gordon Brown, bringing together major employers, unions and welfare experts. Plans are still being worked up to improve the flow of credit in the economy, including government guarantees for loans to businesses. The heads of the UK's biggest banks invited to lunch at the Prime Minister's country retreat Chequers on Sunday, fuelling expectations that further measures to get them lending are imminent. Lloyds TSB chief executive Eric Daniels and Barclays chairman Marcus Agius were among the guests, who were also joined by Chancellor Alistair Darling. The latest aid plans are said to include official insurance for securitisations of mortgages and other loans. Mr Brown is expected to tell the employment conference: "We must do everything we can to help those losing their jobs to find work again quickly or to get a new skill, to maximise the chances of the unemployed getting jobs from the 500,000 vacancies in the economy and what are 10,000 new vacancies every working day." 'White collar' staff in management and consultancy have been the biggest victims of the recession so far, new figures show. Between June and November, the Insolvency Service received notifications of 22,038 redundancies at head offices in the management and consultancy sector - an average of 848 a week - according to Freedom of Information data. Labour MP Frank Field said Mr Brown's efforts were being "completely undermined" by the Government's immigration policy, saying: "It is unbelievable that we allow non-EU economic immigrants to come to look for work, or to take up jobs for which British unemployed people have not had the chance to apply."

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ITN | January 12, 2009

Tags:. .securitisations. .tsb. .fuelling. .unemployed. .imminent