OECD 'concerned' after UK government axes job programmes

[CHIMO]

The Government was tonight under renewed pressure over jobs after the west's leading economic thinktank expressed concern over the axing of programmes to help the unemployed back into work.

Labour seized on a report from the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which said the coalition's deficit reduction plans should not come at the expense of money to tackle the labour-market legacy of Britain's postwar recession.

Yvette Cooper, the shadow work and pensions secretary, said Labour's funding of work programmes had helped limit the increase in joblessness, adding that it was a dangerous time to scrap the future jobs fund and the six-month offer – both victims of post-election spending cuts.

"In the 1990s, the Conservatives said unemployment was a price worth paying for reducing inflation," Cooper said. "Now the government is effectively saying that unemployment is a price worth paying for deficit reduction."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jul/07/oecd-concerned-unemployment-jobs-programmes