§ Mr. DavidsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many unemployed young people there are in(a) the Glasgow Pollok constituency, (b) Glasgow, (c) Scotland and (d) the United Kingdom; what the figures were in each of the last five years; if he will list the steps that are being taken to focus help on those youngsters with the greatest difficulty in finding employment; and if he will make a statement. [69228]
§ Mr. Nicholas BrownThe information is in the table.
Number of unemployed young people, aged 18–241 Glasgow Pollok Glasgow Scotland UK May 1997 758 7,375 40,146 396,734 May 1998 765 6,570 35,777 331,974 May 1999 645 5,408 31,421 286,485 May 2000 503 4,528 27,452 251,578 May 2001 457 4,364 26,094 232,995 May 2002 475 4,272 25,845 233,433 1 Seasonally unadjusted Source:
Office for National Statistics
As these figures show, youth unemployment nationally has fallen by 40 per cent. since 1997, to around its lowest level since the mid- 1970s. Moreover, long term youth unemployment has been virtually eradicated.
The New Deal for Young People has played an important part in this success. By the end of March 2002 it had helped over 360,000 young people into jobs. This includes more than 700 young people in my hon. Friend's constituency.
Many of these young people faced significant barriers to employment. The New Deal has given them the skills and motivation to help them move into work. However, we recognise that some young people continue to face difficulties in the labour market. We are introducing a range of measures to provide even more help for these young people.
523WAction Teams for Jobs are already helping disadvantaged groups in the most employment deprived areas in the country into work. The nine teams operating in Scotland have already helped nearly 1,300 young people into work so far, more than 400 of them in Glasgow.
This spring we introduced progress2work, a £40 million initiative to give unemployed people who are recovering from a drug problem the extra help they need to get into work. The first progress2work projects have started in 27 pathfinder areas, including two in Glasgow and 3 in other parts in Scotland. Phase 2 of progress2work will start in October 2002 in a further 36 areas and the programme will be rolled out to all parts of the country from 2003. In the autumn, we will extend the progress2work model to help other groups facing disadvantage in the labour market, including ex-offenders.
In April 2002, we launched StepUP, a £40million initiative providing transitional jobs for people who have not been able to find work through New Deal. Six pilots are already up and running, including one in Scotland, and we are introducing a further 14 throughout the year.
We also introduced in April a new £15 million outreach initiative to engage more effectively with, and improve the job prospects for people from ethnic minorities. This will build on the success of the New Deals, which have already helped over 63,000 people from ethnic minorities into work.