Germany unveiled plans to boost employment yesterday but trade unions said the proposals lacked substance and commitment. Economics Minister, Mr Gunter Rexrodt, said the government intended to increase employment policy spending by a total of DM3.7 billion to DM40.8 billion (£16.2 billion) this year.

Proposals in the jobs programme particularly targeted the young, the long-term unemployed and vocational training measures, as was agreed by the 15 EU nations at a special jobs summit in Luxembourg last November.

Among these was a plan to extend an "integration programme" for long-term unemployed up to 2001, which the government forecast would bring around 70,000 people back to work in 1998.

The programme also set a goal of halving the number of school leavers without formal qualifications over the next five years and increasing the number of training places available to young people.

"In 1998 we will also fulfil the EU target that at least 20 per cent of those unemployed will be encouraged and supported through active employment measures," Mr Rexrodt said.

"I am optimistic we will see a trend change in unemployment this year. We will have around 200,000 less people unemployed at the end of this year compared to the end of 1997," he added.

Unemployment, which stood at a post-second World War record of 4.6 million last month, has become a thorny issue in Germany, particularly ahead of the general election in September.

Opposition parties used the opportunity to pounce on Chancellor Helmut Kohl's jobs record. Social Democrat deputy parliamentary chairman, Mr Otmar Schreiner said the government's proposals were far removed from the EU decisions made in Luxembourg.

Union representatives remained unimpressed. "The government has reduced employment measures down to the labour market and structural policies and there is a total lack of overall economic growth strategy," said Ms Ursula Konitzer, deputy chairwoman of the largely white-collar DAG union.

Bonn has said structural causes, such as tax cuts, wages and labour market flexibility, are responsible for as much as 80 per cent of the nearly five million Germans out of work.