I announced a range of employment creation measures on 27 September last. These included a number of measures aimed at the long-term unemployed. In particular, the employment incentive scheme has been redirected to provide employment premiums only for long-term unemployed people over 25 years of age, early school leavers and the handicapped. Premiums will also be payable to employers for 39 weeks, instead of 24 weeks, as at present.
I would hope that the improvements in this scheme and the general improvement in the economy will lead to more of the long-term unemployed getting jobs in the private sector. The most recent figure for long-term unemployment relates to April 1989 and this shows a heartening decline of 6,500 in the numbers of long-term unemployed compared with April 1987.