£2bn 'needed to aid unemployed'

The TUC said 100,000 paid work experience jobs could be created in areas of the country suffering the worst levels of unemployment.

The long-term unemployed and young people should be targeted for help, including training opportunities and jobseeking, said the union organisation.

Unemployment surged over the two million mark last month and official figures are set to show another big rise, with experts predicting the total will pass three million next year.

The TUC suggested that the new jobs should last for up to a year and be offered to those who have been claiming jobseeker's allowance for more than six months. Participation in the scheme would be voluntary.

Jobs would be in childcare, sports, transport and energy-saving, such as home insulation, and workers would be paid at the going rate for the work, the TUC urged.

The first jobs should be set up in cities with high levels of long-term claimants, including Birmingham, Belfast, Liverpool, Glasgow, Newcastle upon Tyne, Sheffield, Manchester, Nottingham and Cleveland , said the TUC. The London boroughs of Tower Hamlets, Newham, Haringey, Lambeth and Southwark should be the first in the capital to roll out the scheme, it added.

General Secretary Brendan Barber said: "In previous recessions well-qualified workers who have lost their jobs have tended to find work again quite quickly.

"However, younger workers and low-skilled employees who have been unemployed for a long time can find their already limited opportunities back into work squeezed even more during a recession.

"Properly defined new work schemes have proved successful in the past, and the Government needs to do all it can to minimise the grim impact of the recession, and ensure that the UK is poised ready to make the most of opportunities for recovery."