Prime Minister David Cameron held talks with 19 major employers today (Monday), including Microsoft, McDonalds and Tesco, to discuss what the Government can do to help organisations get people into jobs.
Downing Street claims that 300,000 private sector jobs have already been created over the last six months and says that the pledges by business leaders to boost job creation in the UK are further proof that the jobs needed to offset public sector cuts are being delivered.
Cameron commented: “We can only get our economy back on track by creating a climate in which the private sector can grow and develop, creating jobs and opportunities for people across the country.”
“By developing the right skills and jobs I am determined that the many, not the few, will share in the country’s prosperity.”
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) welcomed the businesses’ pledges to enhance job creation but warned they are likely to have a “marginal impact” on the employment outlook in 2011.
Dr John Philpott, chief economic adviser at the CIPD, argued: “The fall in UK private sector employment during the recession was purely the consequence of inadequate demand resulting from the global financial crisis rather than due to some underlying problem of the labour market.
“The critical determinant of private sector employment growth in 2011 will in turn be the extent to which net exports and investment offset slower consumer spending and the planned cuts in public spending and tax hikes.”
Philpott added that the proposed increase in the unfair dismissal qualifying period from one to two years would do nothing for jobs in the short term and would have a limited impact on the economy’s job creation potential.
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