Young adults to be given work or training

11:30 24th April 2009

The Budget report has revealed that young adults across the UK are to have a guarantee of work or training if they have been unemployed for a year.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has welcomed the development against a backdrop of unemployment figures that recently swept past the two million mark, the highest in more than ten years.

Tony Dolphin, senior economist at the IPPR, said the news was positive given that unemployment among younger members of the workforce tends to rise more quickly in a recession and can have more far-reaching effects.

Mr Dolphin said: "There is an economic case and probably a moral case for focusing efforts on the young unemployed because of the long-lasting effects of unemployment."

He added that employers generally find it easier to simply not recruit graduates than to lay-off existing members of staff.

Computer training could be among the opportunities available to eligible individuals under the new scheme.

There were 270,000 redundancies in the UK during the three months up to February this year, an increase of 45,000 on the previous quarter, according to the Office for National Statistics.