Securing Jobs

Securing Jobs

We're determined to do everything we can to help people who are being hit by the world recession. Never again must we lose a generation to work. But because unemployment is still expected to rise in 2010, our support to help people into jobs must continue into 2010. Now is not the time to pull back our help for the unemployed.

• The Future Jobs Fund was announced in Budget 2009, and is funded as part of the extra £5bn of investment Labour has put in to help people back to work. This extra investment is increasing through the recovery – from £2bn this year to £3bn next year (2010-11).

The Fund is creating 170,000 additional jobs, primarily aimed at 18-24 year olds who have been out of work for 6 months to deliver real benefits to communities, and mostly starting next year (2010-11). Alongside the specific support for young people, we are targeting 50,000 jobs in unemployment hotspots and expect around 10,000 of the 170,000 jobs created to be green jobs. The seventh round of bidding for the Future Jobs Fund has now been completed and will create up to 6,000 new jobs, bringing the total number of jobs from successful bids to 110,000 so far.

Allocated jobs under the Future Jobs Fund:

East Midlands 5,000
East of England 2,900
London 7,900
North East 3,000
North West 17,400
Scotland 14,900
Wales 10,000
South East 4,400
South West 2,700
West Midlands 10,100
Yorkshire & Humber 7,800
National/No regional split available 23,900
Total 110,000

Figures are rounded to the nearest 100 and may not sum as a result. Jobs allocated represent the total number of jobs contained within each successful bid and currently amount to around 110,000 positions. This total is subject to small ongoing revisions as bidders make clarifications to their bids. For more information on successful bids, please see: http://campaigns.dwp.gov.uk/campaigns/futurejobsfund/index.asp

• The Future Jobs Fund is a part of the Young Person’s Guarantee. The Young Person’s Guarantee is a radical way to help young people through the recession. It means all 18–24-year-olds, still unemployed after six months, will be offered a job, training or internship and will be required to take it up before they complete 10 months on JSA.

Labour’s record

Before the global recession hit, there were more people in work than in any time in Britain’s history, long term unemployment was less than a quarter of its 1997 level and the claimant count had fallen to half the 1997  figure.

We have invested in Jobcentre Plus staff so that their personalised support and advice from Day one helps nearly 70 per cent of jobseekers to leave Job Seekers’ Allowance by six months of a claim.

Over 3,000 employers have used the Rapid-Response Service during the recession – this provides on site support for both small and large scale redundancies to help employees find a new job even before they become unemployed.

We introduced the New Deal for Lone Parents in 1998 and 980,000 people have received help from the programme. More than 638,000 have moved into work as a result.

As set out in the PBR, unemployment is 450,000 lower than predicted at the time of the last Budget – saving the taxpayer around £2 billion a year in benefits alone.