Help for the newly unemployed

The Assembly have announced £68m plans to help the newly redundant re-train and get back into work. They've been touting it as a response to the Corus announcement, although it seem this press release was published before the extent of the redundancies was confirmed.

Quick response or slick PR?

I also feel obliged to ask why the Welsh Assembly are paying to pick up the pieces when Corus have admitted (see the press release in yesterday's post) that they will be making £200m operating profits as a result of this 'competitiveness initiative'?

I also wonder how well the Unions have dealt with this situation. Back in December, there was talk of a 10% pay cut being offered to save jobs. Community Union apparently rejected it...now 10% of their members are being made redundant.

WAG announces back to work scheme

The Welsh Assembly has announced a £19m project to get the long-term unemployed back to work.

The money, which includes £10.5m from the European Social Fund, will be spent on getting nearly 3,000 people back into work.

They'll be given access to a case worker, who will provide guidance and support on their 'journey back into the job market'.

More info...