Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

US senate passes job creation bill

Updated at 8:03 am on 18 March 2010

The United States Senate has passed a $US17.6 billion bill aimed at boosting employment.

The legislation provides tax breaks and other incentives to businesses that hire workers who have been unemployed.

The bill was approved by 68 votes to 29, with 11 Republicans joining the Democratic supporters.

US President Barack Obama said the legislation was the first of what he hoped will be a series of job packages that will help to continue to put people across American back to work.

"This bill will provide tax cuts to small businesses that are willing to begin hiring right now," he said. "It's also going to provide significant tax breaks to businesses for investing in their business.

"The bill also will continue to improve our ability to finance infrastructure projects."

The legislation exempts firms from paying a 6.2% payroll tax on new employees who had previously been out of work, and would give companies an additional tax credit if the employee was still in the job a year later.

The legislation also allocates almost $US20 billion to a road building programme.

A crackdown on offshore tax shelters was to offset the cost of enacting the bill, other than the fund for road building.

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