Jobs initiative merely sets the groundwork

The Government’s jobs initiative is welcome as it again demonstrates an acknowledgement by our politicians of the seriousness of the employment crisis.

Coming less than a year after the last one, however, we must wonder if this will be yet another in a seeming never-ending series of job initiatives.

This plan is ambitious: 100,000 jobs will apparently be created within a short time and no less than 200,000 within a short few years, all but solving the employment crisis if we get any hint of growth. And there is an unemployment crisis — 75,000 persons under the age of 25 are on the live register, and all international evidence suggests the younger and the longer the duration of unemployment a person experiences, the greater a negative effect this has on future employability.