Youth Unemployment

Debate between Nia Griffith and Michael Dugher

Wednesday 16th February 2011 Commons Chamber

[Nia Griffith (Llanelli) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that, right in the middle of a recession, the whole point was for the public sector to provide some of those jobs—in construction, for example—to keep people’s skills up, ready for when the private sector picked up?

[Michael Dugher]

My hon. Friend is exactly right.

Those 2,000 private sector jobs in my constituency are coming from ASOS, the online fashion company—I do not see too many takers in the Chamber for its clothes, but we live in hope—but those jobs did not happen by accident. The reason 2,000 jobs are coming to my constituency is that when Labour was in government, we built the facilities that will house those jobs. We built the road that attracted the company in the first place. The public sector plays a big part in supporting private sector jobs.