The Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg announced a £1bn plan last week to provide subsidised work and training placements that will "provide hope" to thousands of young people without work.
The three-year youth contract scheme will give employers subsidies worth £2,275 to take on 160,000 18-to 24-year-olds for six months.
It will be difficult to ascertain to what extent employers would have taken those trainees on anyway, without financial assistance from Whitehall
Youth unemployment hit 1.02 million in the three months to September.
One in five 16-24s are without full-time work, education or training.
The new programme begins next April and aims to get young people into a range of employment sectors including retail and construction.
Up to 410,000 work and training placements will be created in England, Wales and Scotland by giving employers wage incentives equivalent to half of the youth national minimum wage.
It has all been done before, remember Labour's New Deal?
Whatever schemes and subsidies are dreamed up to grab headlines, jobs need to be actually created.
Employers will not take on anybody, even subsidised young workers, if they do not have orders and work for them to do, even with a contribution from the taxpayer.
By paying a subsidy, other long-term unemployed could be denied permanent work, as employers are financially encouraged to take on a succession of subsidised young unemployed.
