BRITAIN 12 Jan 2009 Prime Minister Gordon Brown plans job fair

Prime Minister Gordon Brown Brown plans to create a public works program. Generating some 100,000 jobs, it will be modeled on the United States Depression-era model. The program starts on Jan 12 with what Brown describes as a jobs summit. He will host ministers and employers from several sectors to find ways to get the unemployed hired or retrained. The initiative is one of several he will introduce to ease the pain of the country's recession.

The overall plan includes measures to get banks lending again, and helping companies obtain credit. The BBC reported on Saturday that the government was considering a second bailout for the country's banks because previous measures to get them lending again had failed.

The number of jobless Britons rose 137,000 in the quarter through October to 1.86 million, the highest since December 1997, the year Brown’s Labour Party took office, based on International Labor Organization methods. The unemployment rate climbed to 6 percent, the most since June 1999, from 5.5 percent in the previous period.

Brown will host a G20 summit in April, and he plans to present a "global recovery plan" to the leaders of member countries. Jan/09

RELATED READING:

Brown pledges to create jobs and kick start lending (Bloomberg 4 Jan 2009)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=aHVN3XncEC84&refer=uk