Jobs minister calls on public sector to do more to fight unemployment

Employment and welfare reform minister Tony McNulty has called on the public sector to hire more long-term unemployed people and apprentices to fight rising jobless figures.

Speaking exclusively to Personnel Today, he said state employers needed to think more imaginatively about how they could help to bring unemployment down.

"As we get into more difficult economic conditions, the public sector needs to understand the social dimensions of the labour market, and its [own] power in relation to [that market] by taking on more apprentices and working with Local Employment Partnerships (LEPs) to take on more individuals who are struggling to get back to work," he said.

In the government's LEP scheme, employers agree to offer jobs to the long-term unemployed.

McNulty last week oversaw a deal that will see the Recruitment and Employment Confederation and Jobcentre Plus working together to fill vacancies.