Working on a temporary basis is part of many people’s career paths. More than one in three people (36%) in Great Britain have worked as a contractor, freelancer or agency worker at some point in their career, and 41% are considering working that way in the future, reports the REC.

Jobcentres are failing to help about a third of their customers – mainly the long-term workless – and should be restructured to enable private companies and charities to compete with government providers, a report by the influential centre-right thinktank Policy Exchange has proposed.

Young people need to be kept on track in the search for jobs into their mid-twenties, a government auditor warns. A report into youngsters not in education, employment or training (NEET) said help for 19-24 year olds was not as good as for 16-18 year olds. The Wales Audit Office (WAO) urged the Welsh government to get the best value from £200m spent on NEETs in a year. Deputy skills minister Ken Skates said more work would be done to share best practice and track progress of schemes.

Research published by the Black Training and Enterprise Group (BTEG) reveals the views of 200 young black men about their experiences of finding work in the capital.

Young black men have a higher unemployment rate than any other group of young people and the research shows that they have mixed but mainly poor experiences of support from Jobcentre Plus and Work Programme providers. They also feel isolated from their peers and unsupported in their efforts to ‘do the right thing’.

Thurrock Council is joining forces with Jobcentre Plus and two Work Programme providers to tackle unemployment. The agreement will particularly focus on people who find it most difficult to get work. The plans aim to equip local people with the skills and confidence to fill thousands of new jobs planned for Thurrock by 2021.

‘One Day at a Time’, a new report launched by Citizens Advice Cymru, highlights that many of the most vulnerable in Wales are being forced into hardship due to the biggest changes to the welfare system in over sixty years. The report is based on evidence from across the Citizens Advice Bureaux network in Wales as well as bespoke qualitative research commissioned by Citizens Advice Cymru to explore the ‘lived experience’ of the recent benefit changes.

The Treasury has still not signed off on the government's troubled universal credit benefits reform, Sir Bob Kerslake, the head of the civil service, has revealed. He made the admission that the project was being drip-fed money by the Treasury after Margaret Hodge, the chair of the Commons public accounts committee, repeatedly pressed senior civil servants about its financial status.

With the general election less than a year away, the CIPD has published a ‘Manifesto for Work’ to urge politicians to focus on new ways to future proof UK employment. In its proposal, the CIPD said that policy makers will need to tackle fundamental skills and productivity issues or risk letting the country fall behind its overseas competitors.

The 2014 Youth Employment Convention sought to put young people at the heart of next year’s general election. The legacy report, sponsored by Shaw Trust, is comprised of 25 short essays from contributors to the convention, all experts in their field. It describes why youth unemployment remains a systemic issue despite an improving economy and makes the case for policy changes that will support the skills and employment needs of our most valuable national asset – our young people. It is hoped that that the report and the contributor’s recommendations will influence the manifestos of all the major political parties.

Tens of millions of pounds is being paid in bonuses to under-performing contractors responsible for the Government's flagship back-to-work scheme, government auditors have warned.

Flaws in contracts mean the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has to pay incentives for the Work Programme to even the worst performing providers, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.

The European Commission has adopted a Communication outlining the employment challenges and opportunities of the transition towards a green, low carbon, energy and resource-efficient economy.

Homeless people have been granted new exemptions from benefit sanctions under regulations laid before parliament today. Under the new rules, Jobcentre Plus advisors will be given the discretionary power to exempt rough sleepers and those in supported accommodation from looking for work.

It comes after a report by Homeless Link in September found that 31 per cent of homeless people on jobseekers’ allowance benefits have been sanctioned, compared to 5.5 per cent of the typical claimant population.

Government plans to withdraw £27 million of emergency support risk harming the capital’s most vulnerable people and undermining the introduction of Universal Credit, London boroughs are warning in a report published today.

Universal Credit has been extended as the service opens up to new claims from couples in five sites. Hammersmith, Bath, Rugby, Harrogate and Inverness will take new claims from couples as well as those from single people. Other sites in the north west of England and Wales will also make this change from this summer.

Minister for Welfare Reform Lord Freud said:
“Universal Credit is transforming people’s lives and is available in a growing number of areas. Today we take on the first new claims from couples.”

The Child Poverty Action Group has accused the government of ignoring the impact of its welfare reforms in drawing up its new child poverty strategy.

Launched by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith, the new strategy has identified supporting families into work, improving living standards and raising educational attainment as the fundamental ways to achieve the long-term goal of ending child poverty by 2020.