New Deal for over-50s - Tony Blair
New Deal for over-50s - Tony Blair The New Deal for older people Overall the British economy is stronger today, b
New Deal for over-50s - Tony Blair
The New Deal for older people
Overall the British economy is stronger today, but, if we are to continue to increase prosperity and living standards, we have to make sure that we have the best possible use of the talents and energy of all the British people.
We can't afford to waste potential. Human resources are the great natural resource of a country in the 21st Century.
It's why when we came to power we introduced the New Deal for the young. It's the most ambitious initiative in this country to tackle the scandal of youth unemployment.
And giving people, particularly young people the chance of real jobs and real training. Giving them that crucial first opportunity to show what they can do, helps everyone. Helps the economy, helps the young people and it reduces the high burdens of Social Security spending.
Thanks to the support of over 60,000 businesses, right across the country, the New Deal has helped cut long-term youth unemployment by over 60% in the last 3 years.
Real success can't be measured in terms of statistics but in the individual stories of young people who have told me, wherever I travel in Britain, that the New Deal has helped transform their lives.
Or the stories from employers, who perhaps signed up to the New Deal because they wanted to do something to help, and found they had taken on a valued and indispensable new recruit to their workforce.
Because of its success, we have systematically extended the New Deal to include other groups who need special help including the long-term unemployed - and lone parents and disabled people who want to go back to work and perhaps just need that extra help to do so.
Employment prospects have been helped, too, by the stronger, more stable economy, jobless numbers fall to the lowest level for 20 years, there are 800,000 more people in work today than there were 3 years ago.
However, despite the record number of people in work and record number of vacancies, there remains one group who still face real barriers to finding work, the over 50s. They are a group who can find the door shut on them simply because of their age.
These barriers help explain why the proportion of older men in employment has fallen so dramatically over the last two decades - and the much smaller rise in the number of older women in work, compared to younger women.
If employment levels among this age group had remained the same as in 1951, there would be 1. 2 million people in jobs today who are presently out of work.
Now of course, some older people can't work anymore and others, perhaps with early pensions, simply don't want to.
But many more do. Many more would love to work but simply don't get the chance to. I have heard too many stories from too many of my constituents in the North East not to understand the real despair that can be caused when people are desperate to work, feel its part of their dignity and don't get the opportunity to.(责任编辑：www.360gaokao.com)
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