Employment Minister Tessa Jowell today welcomed news on the New Deal, with 274,230 young people now helped into jobs through the programme. Of these, 209,240 young people have moved into sustained work – jobs lasting more than 13 weeks.

Ms Jowell said, “The New Deal is continuing to help the long-term unemployed find work, and has helped us now reach the lowest unemployment for 25 years. This has been changing lives up and down the country, giving people a better future and it is contributing to the continued success of the economy.

“Recent independent research shows the real number helped into jobs through the New Deal could be even higher. The research showed that more than half of young people who left the New Deal without explaining where they were going went straight into work – an estimated 80,000 more than official figures show.”

Other key statistics show that, amongst the options, 90,300 young New Dealers have gone into full-time education and training, 41,500 have undertaken the Employment Option, 40,700 are working on the Environment Task Force and 43,000 are working in the voluntary sector.

Over 83,200 employers have now signed up to support the New Deal.