The Government has unveiled a £3.1 billion package of support for jobseekers after new figures showed unemployment has soared to its highest level since Labour came to power in 1997.
The number of people looking for work jumped by 177,000 in the three months to February to reach 2.1 million - the biggest quarterly rise since 1991 and the worst total since just before Labour won the general election in May 1997.
The number of people claiming jobseeker's allowance increased for the 13th month in a row in March, up by 73,700 to 1.46 million, the highest total since September 1997.
Chancellor Alistair Darling responded in his Budget by announcing plans to create or support 250,000 jobs as part of a package of measures to help jobseekers, particularly the young.
Around 150,000 of the new jobs will be created through a fund aimed at local authorities and third sector groups.
By next January, every 18 to 24-year-old approaching a year out of work will be guaranteed a new job, training or a paid work experience place.
Mr Darling said the Government was determined not to return to the days when a whole generation of young people found themselves "abandoned to a future on the scrapheap".
He announced that the Jobcentre Plus network would receive .....continued below
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an additional £1.7 billion, on top of £1.3 billion previously announced so that "everyone" could receive high-quality support.Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell said it had been a "Budget for jobs", adding that £3.1 billion would be invested in helping jobseekers.
He revealed that 100,000 jobs would be set aside for young people in sectors including hospitality and caring, pledging: "These 250,000 jobs will be real opportunities, to give young people skills and the chance to experience the pride and purpose of work.
"We will focus on quality opportunities which will benefit young people, but also benefit Britain. We will not make the mistake of pushing people into dead-end schemes which have no purpose."
A raft of other gloomy figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed continuing cuts in manufacturing jobs, a record low number of vacancies and the lowest rise in average earnings since 1991.
Meanwhile, economic inactivity, including people on long-term sick leave, those taking early retirement or who have given up looking for work, remained at more than 20% of the workforce at 7.85 million.
The UK now has an unemployment rate of 6.7%, the highest since the summer of 1997, today's figures showed.
Job vacancies fell by 68,000 in the quarter to March to a record low of 462,000, while a record 270,000 people were made redundant in the three months to February.
The ONS also reported a fall in the number of people in work in the quarter to February, down by 126,000 to 29.27 million, the lowest since last autumn.
