Immigration row: Do the British jobless lack the right skills for jobs? - Telegraph.co.uk

"Too often that is not the case and there is a stream of highly able Eastern European migrants who are able to fill those jobs.

"They are skilled, they speak good English and, more importantly, they want to work."

Neil Carberry, the CBI director for employment policy, said firms wanted to give young people an opportunity, but they had to pick the right candidate for the job.

"Tackling unemployment is a challenge for everyone, and businesses want to give young British people a chance," he said.

"Employers should choose the best person for the job. The challenge is to ensure that more young Britons are in a position to be the best candidate.

"The Government's focus should be on boosting private sector growth, which will deliver more job opportunities, and reforming our welfare and skills systems to make sure our young people are ready for work."

John Walker, the national chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: "Iain Duncan Smith raises an important issue, but the solution requires a long-term realignment of priorities in education.

"Small firms will always take on the staff best placed to do the job. But for too long governments have focused exclusively on getting young people to university, instead of preparing students for work through vocational qualifications and apprenticeships as in countries like Germany.

"Coupled with the fact that Government agencies fail to connect under-skilled workers with small businesses, we have a system that fails to meet the needs of job seekers and employers alike."

Paul Griffin, the head of employment law at the law firm DBS, said employers could fall foul of anti-discrimination legislation if they favoured British job applicants.

"Any favouring of British workers above those from the EU or anywhere else if they have the right to work here, could make an employer liable for a claim for direct race discrimination under the Equalities Act," he said.

"Iain Duncan Smith's speech, whilst on the surface seeming positive, is actually a crude political act to scapegoat migrant workers for a lack of jobs."

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