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New move to tackle youth unemployment

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2nd September 2009

Plans to help young people find jobs are to be outlined by the government, following calls from unions and ministers to do more to tackle youth unemployment.

The campaign will see £1bn spent on creating 100,000 new jobs for young people, with a further 50,000 jobs created in 'unemployment hotspots'.

More than 150 companies and organisations have signed up to the initiative to help find employment, education or training for young people.

Firms including the Royal Mail, Microsoft, Pfizer, Phones4U, Centrica and Morrisons will participate in the joint venture with the government.

The prime minister will make the announcement alongside business secretary Peter Mandelson and work and pensions secretary Yvette Cooper at the Backing Young Britain summit in Birmingham.

Plans are to be set out to guarantee jobs for anyone aged 18 to 24 who has been out of work for 10 months.

Brown said: "There's definitely been an improvement in the British economy since April. We are cautious but we're cautiously optimistic about the future."

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Cooper said the main point of the initiative was to ensure Britain did not return to the levels of unemployment of the 1980s.

"Young people have a harder time when there is an economic downturn but we are now prepared to put extra investment in," she stated.

Official figures have revealed that the unemployment rate among 16 to 24 year olds has risen to almost 20 percent, with 920,000 classified as unemployed.

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