To alleviate rising unemployment facing Britain as it slides deeper into recession, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown launched a jobs summit on Monday, with an ambition to help 500,000 people obtain work or training.

Under the 500-million-pound scheme, the government will offer up to 2,500 pounds to employers for every person they train who has been jobless for more than six months.

The first company to show support of Gordon Brown's job scheme is Morrisons, Britain's 4th largest supermarket with 375 stores across the country. The retailer announced the same day plans to create over 5,000 jobs in 2009 as part of its continuing program of store expansion.

Morrisons says that the jobs will be created across the business in a variety of positions, such as on Morrisons' fresh food "Market Street" counters which include butchery, fish mongery and bakery.

Norman Pickavance, Group HR Director for Morrisons said: "Even in these challenging economic conditions, Morrisons is committed to hiring and training new people to keep retail as the engine room of the economy and support our continuing growth."

However, the job market is deteriorating. And further job losses are announced almost daily on news bulletins.

The same day, shortly after Gordon Brown launched his initiatives, news made big headlines that nearly 3,200 people will be made redundant across Britain. The businesses affected include the ceramic firm Wedgewood, Findus frozen foods in Newcastle, distribution company Wincanton, the construction machinery company JCB, and furniture retailer Land of Leather.

This worrying situation has been termed as a "jobless tsunami. "It has put Gordon Brown's job scheme into a challenging situation, as the number of people becoming jobless is growing quicker than the number of jobs created.

This seems to make clear that his job plan is unlikely to turn around Britain's worsening unemployment. The country now faces an army of 1.8 million unemployed, and the figure is forecast to soar above 2.8 million by the end of 2009.

The latest figures show that between June and November 2008, an average of 848 people lost their jobs every week.

There were 562,000 job vacancies from September to November 2008, down 49,000 over the previous quarter, and down 118,000 over the year. This is the lowest figure since comparable records began in 2001, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Many have expressed scepticism about Gordon Brown's job scheme. They argue that it is merely an extension of already failing programs currently in existence. Critics say that it will only increase public debts for future generations.

In the economic front, business people have pointed out that the difficulties in getting loans from banks are the key reason for the economy failing to move ahead. Union leaders have also called for efforts to protect existing jobs, especially in the car industry.

At the summit, Gordon Brown also outlined his plans for achieving growth in environmental technology, advanced manufacturing, healthcare and educational sectors.

"Failure to act now and to do so in coordination with our international partners would mean a deeper and longer global recession," he insisted.

(Xinhua News Agency January 13, 2009)