The UK’s Jobcentres aren’t working and must be urgently reformed to tackle rising unemployment, according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

In a survey of 2,500 FSB members, 34% said they found Jobcentre Plus ineffective or very ineffective, while another 49% did not even know if it worked well or not.

Fewer than 20% of small businesses said they used Jobcentre Plus to recruit, preferring to use advertising and recruitment agencies.

With unemployment set to rise to three million by the end of the year, the FSB says it is clear that urgent action is needed. A new FSB report, entitled ‘The Jobcentre is not working’, proposes that the government takes the following actions:

- establishes links between Jobcentre Plus, Business Link and skills boards, to create a focus on business needs and the skills needed for local employment

- appoints a dedicated small business manager in each Jobcentre

- commissions research to examine how funding allocated to unemployment, training and business support initiatives is spent

- overhauls the Jobcentre Plus website

John Wright, national chairman, FSB, says: “FSB members feel let down by a service which appears to offer them precious little for the £3.36bn Jobcentre Plus spends each year. As small businesses are the country’s key employers, and are known to give a larger proportion of jobs to those who have previously been unemployed than big businesses, it’s time the government reformed Jobcentre Plus and made it work effectively.

The FSB is concerned the lion’s share of funding from Jobcentre Plus currently goes to large companies and multinationals, which would still provide training if public funding were not available.