Stormont has committed £16m to tackle persistently high levels of economic inactivity in Northern Ireland.
The most recent data suggests that almost 27% of people aged 16-64 in Northern Ireland are inactive, compared to a UK average of 21%.
That equates to about 317,000 people, although about 75,000 of those are in education.
Former UK health minister Alan Milburn has been appointed as chairman of the newly established Commission on Work and Wellbeing to help reduce that number.
Economic inactivity refers to people who are not in work and not looking for work, including people who are sick, disabled or have caring responsibilities.
Milburn recently completed an interim report on joblessness among young people in Great Britain.
Led by the Department for Communities, the NI scheme will have a wider remit to help adults who have dropped out of the jobs market.
It will include pilot schemes in Londonderry and Belfast, funded by money from Stormont’s public services transformation fund.
Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said economic inactivity is one of the most pressing challenges for Northern Ireland.
“We have a huge number of people not in the workplace,” he said.
“It’s not good for society as a whole in Northern Ireland but it is also not good those individuals, it’s not compassionate, it’s limiting opportunity.”