Brown moves to stem rising unemployment

Prime Minister yesterday pledged to spend an extra £500 million to stem rising unemployment caused by the financial crisis.

The government's main aim is to get people who lose their jobs back to work before they become long-term unemployed and out of touch with working life.

"We're putting money into jobs, hundreds of millions of pounds, like today half a billion pounds," Mr Brown told GMTV before meeting industry leaders for a jobs summit to look at ways to ease the looming recession's impact on employment. He said the government was helping employers who took on new staff, helping young people with new apprenticeships and helping people to start their own businesses.

"We are looking at every possible option," he said.

The government is to give companies up to £2,500 for new recruits who have been unemployed for more than six months, according to a report in the Guardian newspaper.

Unemployment in Britain rose to 1.864 million people in the three months to October, equal to six per cent of the workforce and the highest rate since the three months to June 1999. Some commentators forecast it could rise as high as three million before the economy recovers.

Retailer Marks & Spencer plc and car maker Nissan Motor Co. Ltd said last week they were axing 2,430 jobs between them.

Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell told Sky News there were still half a million job vacancies in the economy.

"The mistake we made in previous recessions was to give up on people. What we're saying is we won't give up on anybody but they mustn't give up on themselves. They mustn't stop looking for work," he said.