ALMOST 1,000 jobs planned for youngsters in Hampshire will be scrapped under Government cutbacks.

Council chiefs have admitted the jobs will be lost after the Govern-ment axed the funding pot to pay for them.

It comes as latest employment figures revealed the number of under 25s claiming job seekers’ allowance (JSA) now stands at around 7,000 – nearly one-third of all claimants.

And while Southampton saw the fastest drop in the country in young people stuck on the dole for more than six months, some 1,355 under 25s are still on JSA.

Since June 2009 unemployment figures among Hampshire’s young people have nearly doubled with more than one in 20 of the county’s 103,000 18-24-year-olds out of work.

The county’s New Jobs, New Futures Consortium has helped take 679 under 25s off the dole queue in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight since being set up at the height of the recession with cash from Labour’s Future Jobs Fund.

The scheme aimed to ensure every under 25-year-old who had been out of work long-term was given a job for at least six months.

In Southampton 274 “jobs” have been lined up with the council, city’s hospitals, health trusts, universities and other training organisations.

They include clerical and business administration, personal care, youth work, grounds and maintenance work, and tree surgery.

But coalition ministers have announced the scheme will end in April, to be replaced by a private-sector led Work Programme.

Giving evidence to a Commons committee investigating the threat of rising unemployment, Hampshire County Council, which co-ordinated the county’s £6m Future Jobs Fund cash, said one quarter of those given positions had gone on to other jobs.

But a council statement added: “The impact of the decision to end the Future Jobs Fund in March 2011 rather than March 2012 has effectively reduced the vacancies available to young people by 900 positions.

“Young people are not simply given a job, the approach of the Future Jobs Fund project equips them with skills to find a job and learn about the competitive job application process.”

Labour business spokesman and Southampton MP John Denham said: “These were real jobs which prevented young people heading for a life on the dole. There will be a price to be paid by Southamp-ton’s young for this cut.”