CBI chief calls for incentive to employ youths

The government should provide businesses with incentives to take on British teenagers instead of migrant workers and older applicants, the head of a leading business organisation said yesterday.

John Cridland, director- general of the CBI, said it should consider offering businesses a £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 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, seen by many as a mini-budget.

Mr Cridland said: “We don’t want people scarred by unemployment in the early years of their lives. If we gave employers £1,500 as a cash subsidy, they might take on a 16-year-old with sometimes poor qualifications rather than a migrant worker or a mature worker who has got those skills.”