The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) conference in Darwin agreed to give the jobless access to government-subsidised vocational training.
Labor says the “compact with retrenched workers” will help up to 124,000 people.
“Workers who have been retrenched as a consequence of this global recession have lost their jobs through no fault of their own,” Mr Rudd said.
“Acting to support young Australians who are finding it hard to enter the labour market … represents an important intervention by government.”
Under the agreement, the Federal Government’s new employment agency Job Services Australia matches retrenched workers, aged over 25, with a path to a qualification.
The state and territories would set aside training places.
The entitlement is available from now until the end of 2011.
It follows an “earn or learn” COAG agreement reached in April to make youths aged 15 to 19 undertake training and guarantee places for 20-24 year-olds in skills development.
The Rudd Government says it has invested $300 million in programs to help retrenched workers, but it did not provide a cost for the latest one.
Queensland Premier Anna Bligh said COAG’s new scheme would prepare Australia for economic recovery.
“We know only too well how quickly this country can find itself in a situation of serious skills shortage.”
But Opposition employment participation spokesman Andrew Southcott said training programs for the unemployed had failed when Labor last took that approach in the mid-1990s.
“Training for training’s sake, without a job at the end of it, is cruel to the unemployed,” Mr Southcott said.
“The experience around the world is that a skills-first approach for the unemployed tends to be very expensive and you have poor outcomes.”
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