Clegg set to announce £1bn fund to aid young jobless

NICK Clegg will pledge today to create hundreds of thousands of work placements for young people in the face of record levels of youth unemployment.

The Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats is to announce the creation of a £1 billion Youth Contract aimed at helping jobless young people get back into work or education.

The move comes the day after official figures revealed that a record 1,163,000 16 to to 24-year-olds were “Neet” in the third quarter of this year. The number of people in this age group who are looking for work also increased by 67,000 in the quarter to September to 1.02 million, the worst total since comparable records began in 1992.

Mr Clegg will announce that under the Youth Contract, from next April, over a three-year period at least 410,000 work places will be found for 18 to 24-year-olds.

This includes wage subsidies worth £2,275 handed to employers to take on 160,000 18 to 24-year-olds worth half of the youth national minimum wage.