A £30M scheme to find work or training for the long-term jobless across the region was described as doomed when it was launched yesterday.

Ministers said the plan – offering companies a “golden hello” worth up to £2,500 for every person they recruit – would get people back into work as quickly as possible.

But business groups poured scorn on the claim, warning that the deepening economic gloom had overtaken the scheme since it was announced in January.

With unemployment soaring through the two million barrier, companies were now shedding staff, rather than thinking about adding to their payroll, they said.

John Cridland, the CBI’s deputy director general, said: “It was a laudable aim, but difficult to implement when unemployment is rising swiftly.”

Under the two-year jobs initiative, Jobcentre Plus staff will be given the power to reward firms who offer work or training to those jobless for six months.

The package of up to £2,500 per new worker is made up of a £1,000 direct wage subsidy, plus access to up to £1,500 worth of in-work training, dependent on location.

In January, Gordon Brown suggested the scheme would throw a lifeline to more than 12,000 people in the region.

Yesterday, Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell said: “This is just part of a range of measures to make sure that where unemployment happens, it is short.”