Incentives call to give teenagers jobs chance

John Cridland, director-general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), said the Government should consider offering businesses £1,500 subsidy to take on poorly qualified teenagers as it tackles the problem of rising youth unemployment.

He said it was important to get youngsters “up the beauty parade” and into jobs, adding a generation could be “scarred” by unemployment if the Government fails to act.

His comments come ahead of Chancellor George Osborne’s autumn statement next week, which is seen by many as a mini-budget.

Speaking on the eve of the organisation’s annual conference today, Mr Cridland said it was as much a moral and social question. “If we gave employers £1,500 as a cash subsidy to take on a 16-year-old, they might take on a 16-year-old with lack of work experience and sometimes poor qualifications rather than a migrant worker or a mature worker who has got those skills.

“So let’s get that young person up the beauty parade, let’s give them a chance to get a job today, not in five years’ time.”

Mr Cridland said he believed the Government should stick to reducing the deficit but there were means of stimulating growth without spending significant sums of public money.

The CBI is calling for an improvement in the “lacklustre” performance of the UK as a trading nation under moves to give the economy a £20bn boost. It said the UK should aim to match the European Union average of one in four small to medium-sized enterprises exporting by 2020, compared with the current one in five.

The Government was urged to set out a “clear exports strategy”, with performance targets concentrating on high-growth markets and breaking down domestic barriers.