Finding work every 36 minutes

1:01pm Wednesday 2nd January 2008

THE Government's New Deal helps someone find work every 36 minutes in the South-West, it has been claimed.

The New Deal job-seeking programme, which is ten years old this week, has helped more than 145,000 people in the South-West find a job since its launch in 1998.

It offers a mix of skills training, work experience and tailored advice to help those who have been out of work for six months or more get back into the workforce.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "This week marks ten years of the New Deal, a time for celebration of what has been achieved but also a time for looking ahead to the next 10 years of labour market reform.

"Over its 10 years, more than 1.8million people have been helped into jobs by the New Deals. "Now as we look ahead we need a reformed New Deal to help us face the challenges of the next decades.

"In the old days the problem may have been unemployment, but in the next decades it will be employability.

"If in the old days lack of jobs demanded priority action, in the new world it is lack of skills. And that means that our whole approach to welfare must move on."

Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Peter Hain added: "Last month we published Ready for Work which set out our plans for a more flexible personalised New Deal with a strong focus on helping the most disadvantaged jobseekers get and sustain work.

"We are also making sure that work pays by introducing a new better-off 'in work credit', which will ensure that all long-term claimants see a significant rise in their incomes when they take a job."