Figures released today by the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA), the representative body for the employment support sector, show that the Work Programme has now supported over 731,000 previously long term unemployed jobseekers into the workplace. These figures, for end June 2015, show an increase of 25,000 jobseekers from three months’ ago, with over 4,000 young people finding work on the scheme in the last quarter.
The ERSA Job Start statistics provide the most up to date snapshot of Work Programme performance available in the public domain. They are designed to be read alongside official government figures which show the number of jobseekers who have achieved sustained employment, usually meaning they have spent at least six months in a job. The Government will release its official statistics on Work Programme performance on Thursday 17 September.
Key findings from ERSA statistics include:
- 731,000 individual jobseekers have now entered employment via the Work Programme from its inception in June 2011 to end June 2015.
- Over 178,000 young people have now found at least one job on the Work Programme, up from 174,000 three months before.
- Overall, 42,345 jobseekers on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) have now gained work though the programme. Many of these jobseekers have complex barriers to work and will not have received intensive support before.
Kirsty McHugh, ERSA Chief Executive, said:
“Since the Work Programme began in 2011, over 731,000 jobseekers have been supported into work through the efforts of specialist frontline advisers operating across the country.
Thousands of young people continue to be successfully helped into jobs, which is vital in the efforts to tackle youth unemployment. This will not only benefit the lives of every one of the 4000 young people starting work in the last three months, but it will positively impact on their wider communities and will reap rewards to the taxpayer in the longer term.’’
