In 1971 when i was an industrial relations student I read a White Paper “People and Jobs” which used exactly the words ascribed to Jim Knight when plans for the Employment Servcie Agency were announced.

This played an important part in my early career as i became a graduate management trainee in the Employment Service managing the first Jobcentre in Nottingham in June 1976. In 1983 I was Secretary to the Employment Servcie Board when ministers told us to focus on the unemployed – and in 2000 I was in the Department for Education and Employment leading parts of the New Deal which in turn gave rise to Jobcentre Plus.

The Minister is absolutely right – a public employment service with a strong focus on meeting employer needs would revitalise its economic impact and offer a better servcie for jobseekers too.