Supermarkets to create thousands of jobs

ALL the major supermarket groups have pledged to create thousands of jobs.

Sainsbury’s has announced the creation of 20,000 new jobs over the next three years as it joined other major British businesses at a “growth summit” in Downing Street with Prime Minister David Cameron.

Morrisons said it would create 5,700 new jobs by opening new stores and add 300 staff to its food manufacturing business. Tesco plans 9,000 extra posts, while the Co-op will add 1,000 staff and Asda is to create 15,000 retail apprenticeships. 
 
The Downing Street event was part of the coalition’s attempt to “rebalance the economy” by replacing public sector jobs lost in the £81bn of cuts over the next four years with new ones in the private sector. Mr Cameron said the new jobs came on top of 300,000 posts created in the private sector over the past six months.

But the Forum of Private Business has urged the Government not exclude small firms from job creation plans. It wants to ensure small and medium-sized businesses – which are responsible for almost 60% of  private sector jobs – are central to Mr Cameron’s job creation plans.
 
The FPB said no organisation representing the country’s 4.8 million small businesses was present at the Downing Street growth summit.
 
“Failure to listen to small business owners about employment will only further alienate them and fuel their concerns that they are, in reality, an afterthought at best,” said the forum’s chief executive, Phil Orford.

Speaking at the event Mr Cameron said: “We can only get our economy back on track by creating a climate in which the private sector can grow and develop, creating jobs and opportunities for people across the country.

“It’s time we looked forward to a positive, strong, confident Britain. By developing the right skills and jobs, I am determined that the many not the few will share in the country’s prosperity.”

But Labour leader Ed Miliband said: “If Mr Cameron is really concerned about jobs, he should address the dangers of a lost generation of young people. He should think again about his decision to abandon the Future Jobs Fund and the 100,000 additional jobs it would have offered to young people out of work.”

The fund was launched by the previous Labour government in response to a rise in youth unemployment in 2008 and 2009 and was used to fund temporary jobs, mainly for 18-24 year-olds who had been out of work for more than six months.