Companies offered £3,000 to hire unemployed under-24s

The government is to pay more companies to hire young people, under Labour's latest plan to tackle spiralling rates of youth unemployment. Firms will get a £3,000 grant for every person they take on aged 18 to 24 who is on benefits and has been looking for a job for six months or more. An existing scheme that pays firms to take on those who have been out of work for even longer will also be expanded. It comes as ministers grapple with an unemployment crisis among young people, with over 950,000 16 to 24 year-olds not in education, employment or training, around one in eight people in that age group. Announcing the measures in a speech in east London, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden described the issue as "deep rooted", pointing to rising youth unemployment in the years before Labour entered office. But Helen Whately, his Conservative counterpart, said state-funded jobs were "economic madness" and "not the answer". Her party has pinned the blame for the rise on Labour policies, including a hike to employer's National Insurance last year and a law passed last year creating a series of new employment rights in Britain. The government hopes the new £3,000 "youth jobs grants" w