A telesales boss says he is shocked after he advertised jobs at his firm, but no one applied for two months.

Alan Jefferies did get volunteers on a work experience scheme - but one quit after half-an-hour and another said she would rather get her money from her boyfriend.

The 58-year-old said: "We've replicated what we're doing here in Spain and people are bending over backwards to work there.

"If there are all these unemployed people out there, why aren't we seeing them? Where are they?"

Mr Jefferies has run the Ketles Answering Service on Strood's Medway City Estate since January this year.

The small firm employs call handlers on minimum wage and telesales workers who earn £100 a week plus commission.

Frustrated with a lack of applicants, Mr Jefferies signed up to an eight-week unpaid work experience scheme run by the Department for Work and Pensions.

But of the seven people who joined up, only two made it through the whole two months.

Mr Jefferies, a former Liberal Democrat councillor, said: "One lady didn't want to work for us because her boyfriend looked after her. She said she had been forced to come here."

Despite enforced work experience being a feature of the government's controversial "workfare" scheme, the sales boss insisted he is doing nothing wrong.

"I'm certainly not taking advantage of people," he claimed. "If somebody walks in here tomorrow and has the right credentials I will hire them there and then."

He added: "We have a systematic training scheme which we’ve spent ages getting to work properly."

Figures from August showed there were 7,135 people claiming jobseekers' allowance in Medway, including 9% of all those aged 16 to 24.

More than 2,000 claimants have been on the dole continuously for more than a year.

Mr Jefferies said: "The whole idea is to get people to come along and see how life works in a small office.

"I just can’t believe I haven’t had anyone since August."