Government Tackle Youth Unemployment

The government have pledged over £300million in the next 18 months to combat rising youth unemployment.

Youth unemployment reached a landmark high today as the unemployment total reaches just over 2,500,000. In the last three months a massive 952,000 16-24 years olds have found themselves out of work.

Yveette Cooper released an action plan yesterday to battle the unemployment crisis in the UK. The 'better off in work' initiative looks to tackle the issue of people not accepting job offers as they would make less money if there unemployment benefits were to stop. The plan is to guarantee everyone who has been on benefits for 6 months or more a £40 weekly bonus on top of their salary to ensure that the job does not leave them worse off.

Ms Cooper states that she 'believes that work is the best way out poverty' and this latest initiative will 'guarantee that people will be better off in a job than on benefits'.

The government also announced new measures to combat youth unemployment. 100,000 new jobs and training opportunities will be available for under 25s. Ministers have confirmed that everyone in the under 25 bracket will be guaranteed a job, training or work experience on or after being unemployed for 6 months. The aim of the scheme and overall objective is to see unemployment fall by the second half of 2010.

The main jobs being created include work in the health sector and probation services, police community support officers, and a labour force to help build a national cycle network.

Job Centre Vacancies says: This latest announcement is great news for anyone Under 25 but it still fails to address the issue of unemployment as whole. Keep an eye out for a surge in job vacancies in the public sector.

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