PRIME Minister Tony Blair today tells the BEN that New Deal has helped more than 1,000 youngsters from the Bolton area find jobs.

He says in a special article that the number of Bolton young people out of work for more than six months has halved in less than three years since New Deal started. Mr Blair writes:

"When last I spoke about the New Deal to the BEN almost two years ago, I promised that this Government would step up its drive to tackle the waste of youth unemployment.

It's a campaign which, I know, the BEN has backed with its successful Millennium Jobs crusade. No surprise when you consider the paper's place in the local community or the damage that youth unemployment has done to Bolton.

The New Deal was launched nationally in April, 1998. I'm proud to say that figures released today show it has helped over 250,000 young people off benefit and into jobs. Just as we promised at the election.

The New Deal is not a job creation scheme. It's about giving people real help, real training and real jobs. So the figures mean a quarter of a million youngsters have been given the individual help needed to prepare them for the world of work -- and the chance in a job to show what they can do.

Many have grabbed this chance with both hands. Like Philip Greenhalgh, aged 18, from Horwich.

He was desperate to train as a graphic designer and, thanks to the New Deal, has got that chance with local print firm Contact Packaging.

The New Deal's success is the result of a real partnership between young people like Philip, 80,000 firms, big and small, who have supported it with such enthusiasm and the Government.

The results can be seen here in Bolton. Since the New Deal started less than three years ago, the number of young people jobless for more than six months is down by 52 per cent.

Across the Bolton area over 1,000 unemployed youngsters have been helped into work -- with many more going into education or the environmental or voluntary option.

Of course, the tough decisions we've taken to bring stability to the economy have helped create the conditions for a million more people in work since the election.

But those who claim the New Deal's not made a difference need to answer why the national fall in long-term youth unemployment is more than three times the fall in total unemployment.

The Tories' pledge to scrap the New Deal, and their failed economic policies, would take us back to the time during their years in power when long-term youth unemployment stood at over 500,000.

The figure today is less than 37,000. But as a report today shows, it's also helping provide the country with the trained and skilled people needed.

Thanks to New Deal, there are now 8,000 more mechanics, 12,000 more bricklayers, plasterers and other construction workers, 1,000 more health service workers and playgroup leaders and 500 more self-employed entrepreneurs.

Not everyone has succeeded, of course. But three out of four people leaving the New Deal for work are still in the job three months later."