Only 11 per cent of people recruited to Jobstart programmes earn more than £200 a week and a third earn less than £140 a week. Returns from the scheme, which provides employers with an £80 a week subsidy for every long-term unemployed person they take off the dole, suggest that it is being used to prop up jobs in the lowpay sector.
The scheme has been a major success in taking people off the dole. FAS returns, seen by The Irish Times, show that almost 2,300 long-term unemployed have been recruited through Jobstart.
Initial take-up of the scheme was very slow. Employers recruited only 130 people in the three months after it was launched in June 1995. They complained at the amount of paperwork involved and it is understood that of 400 companies who initially inquired about the scheme only 10 could provide tax clearance certificates.
However it was relaunched by the Government late last year with an easing of regulations. It is now expected to meet its target of providing jobs for 5,000 long-term unemployed.
While the jobs may be low-paid, the hope is that once the longterm unemployed are in the workforce they will progress to better-paid employment.
FAS returns show that 1,528 people were recruited through Jobstart to the end of August and that the figure now stands at 2,300.
There had been fears that some large companies would abuse the system but the returns show that small and medium-sized enterprises are the greatest users of the scheme.
For instance, 68 per cent of the workers have been recruited by companies employing between one and five people. A further 12 per cent were employed by firms with between six and 10 employees, and another 9 per cent by companies with between 11 and 20 employees. Just over 1 per cent of employees have been recruited by firms with workforces of 151 or more people.
However, fears that it would encourage low-paid employment seem better-grounded. A third of Jobstart participants earn less than £140 a week and only 11 per cent earn over £200. Thirteen per cent earn between £181 and £200 a week, 11 per cent earn between £161 and £180 a week, 29 per cent earn between £141 and £160 a week and 4 per cent earn less than £100 a week.