OLD MASSETT, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwire – April 12, 2012) – The Government of Canada announced new funding to support youth in Old Massett to help them gain the skills, knowledge and experience they need to enter and succeed in the job market. The announcement was made by the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages and Minister responsible for British Columbia, on behalf of the Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development.

“Our government’s top priority is creating jobs and economic growth,” said Minister Moore. “Our government’s Youth Employment Strategy is helping youth develop the skills and gain the experience they need to get jobs now and prepare for the workforce of tomorrow.”

The Old Massett Village Council is receiving over $158,000 from the Skills Link program to help youth overcome barriers to employment. Skills Link is part of the Government of Canada’s Youth Employment Strategy (YES).

With annual funding of more than $300 million, YES helps youth, particularly those facing barriers to employment, obtain career information, develop employment skills, find jobs and stay employed. YES includes the Skills Link and Career Focus programs and the Canada Summer Jobs initiative, which creates thousands of job opportunities for students every summer.

Economic Action Plan 2012 proposes an additional $50 million over two years to enhance YES so that more young people can gain tangible skills and experience. This funding will focus on connecting young Canadians with jobs in fields that are in high demand.

The participants in the Old Massett Village Council’s project will get hands-on experience in carpentry, milling and timber framing to help them gain the hours required for a first-year carpentry apprenticeship.

Youth employment programs are part of the Government of Canada’s broader strategy to create an educated, skilled and flexible workforce. The Government underscored its commitment to this strategy in Canada’s Economic Action Plan. A key component of the Plan is to create more and better opportunities for Canadian workers through skills development. To learn more about Canada’s Economic Action Plan, visit www.actionplan.gc.ca.

The Government of Canada is helping youth prepare for, find and maintain meaningful employment through enhanced online services available at Youth.gc.ca.

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IF THERE IS A DISCREPANCY BETWEEN ANY PRINTED VERSION AND THE ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THIS NEWS RELEASE, THE ELECTRONIC VERSION WILL PREVAIL.

This news release is available online at: www.actionplan.gc.ca.

BACKGROUNDER

The Youth Employment Strategy is the Government of Canada’s commitment to help youth make a successful transition to the workplace.

Skills Link helps youth facing barriers to employment, including youth who are single parents, youth with disabilities, and youth in rural and remote areas, to develop the skills and gain the experience needed to find a job or the confidence to return to school.

Career Focus provides funding to employers to hire young post-secondary graduates to give them career-related work experience and help them acquire skills to transition into the job market.

Canada Summer Jobs provides funding to not-for-profit organizations, public-sector employers and small businesses with 50 or fewer employees to create summer job opportunities for young people aged 15 to 30 years who are full-time students intending to return to their studies in the next school year.

To learn more about Canada’s Youth Employment Strategy and other youth employment initiatives, please visit Youth.gc.ca.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
        Alyson Queen
        Director of Communications
        Office of Minister Finley
        819-994-2482

        Media Relations Office
        Human Resources and Skills Development Canada
        819-994-5559

Source: Canada's Economic Action Plan

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Federal Reserve Bank of New York
President William C. Dudley said the economy may be gaining
strength even as the weakest job growth in five months
highlights risks to growth.

“The incoming data on the U.S. economy has been a bit more
upbeat of late, suggesting that the recovery may be getting
better established,” Dudley said, speaking to business leaders
at the Syracuse Technology Garden in Syracuse, New York. Yet
“it is still too soon to conclude that we are out of the woods,
as underlined by the March labor-market release,” he said,
adding he still supports holding the Fed’s main interest rate
close to zero through late 2014.

The Federal Open Market Committee plans to meet April 24-25
to debate policy for an economy described as growing at a
“modest to moderate” pace in the Fed’s Beige Book survey
released yesterday. Fed officials, mandated by Congress to
achieve maximum employment, confront an 8.2 percent jobless rate
that Dudley, FOMC vice chairman, said is “unacceptably high.”

Dudley said in response to an audience question that he
agrees with the Fed’s March 13 statement backing low rates
through at least late 2014. “I haven’t seen any set of
information that would suggest to me we should change that
view,” he said.

QE ‘Not Free’

He said it’s “not free to do another round of quantitative
easing,” noting that bond purchases would expand the Fed’s
balance sheet and “create more anxiety on the part of some that
it would lead to future inflation.”

While asset purchases by the Fed shouldn’t be considered
inflationary, some people may hold such a view, he said.

Employers added 120,000 workers to payrolls last month, the
least since October and below every forecast in a Bloomberg
survey of 80 economists. Estimates ranged from gains of 175,000
to 250,000 jobs.

The employment report may indicate that mild weather early
in 2012 spurred hiring in January and February, muting job
creation in March, Dudley said.

“We thus will need to see more data to determine the
extent to which the March data represent a transitory weather-
related setback,” he said.

Accommodative Policy

Vice Chairman Janet Yellen endorsed the central bank’s
“highly accommodative” policy yesterday, saying the Fed
probably won’t meet its goal of full employment for years while
inflation remains in check.

“Over the next several years, I anticipate that we will
fall far short in achieving our maximum employment objective,
and I expect inflation to remain at or below” the Fed’s 2
percent target, Yellen said in a speech in New York. She said
housing and the European debt crisis are among “significant
headwinds” that may restrain growth.

While further easing “could be warranted if the recovery
proceeds at a slower-than-expected pace,” Yellen said “a
significant acceleration in the pace of recovery could call for
an earlier beginning to the process of policy firming than the
FOMC currently anticipates.”

As president of the New York Fed since January 2009,
Dudley, 59, holds a permanent vote on the central bank’s
monetary policy committee.

He spoke today in the first stop of a two-day tour of
upstate New York. He will speak later today to students and
faculty at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
at Syracuse University. He will also visit Welch Allyn, a
manufacturer of medical devices in Skaneateles Falls, New York.

The central bank compiles an anecdotal account of economic
conditions across the country known as the Beige Book. The
report, released yesterday, said that “hiring was steady or
showed a modest increase across many districts.”

Stocks Rise

U.S. stock futures rose, signaling the Standard Poor’s
500 Index will gain for a second day. SP 500 futures expiring
in June rose 0.6 percent to 1,364.60 at 8:45 a.m. in New York.
The benchmark index climbed 0.7 percent yesterday, snapping a
five-day slump.

Dudley said that the expansion “has yet to be strong
enough on a sustained basis to make a big dent in the overall
amount of slack in the U.S. economy.”

The economy faces headwinds and downside risks, including
rising gas prices, weaknesses in housing and government cutbacks
at the federal, state and local levels, Dudley said. Economic
growth outside the U.S. may also flag, and disruptions to the
supply of oil could push up prices, he said.

In response to audience questions, Dudley said that U.S.
deficits would be even worse when interest rates begin to rise.

Rise ‘Significantly’

“Once we normalize interest rates the debt service cost to
the U.S. will go up significantly,” Dudley said. “We’re not
going to keep interest rates low to solve fiscal problems.”

Dudley said the Fed will “do what it has to do” on
interest rates to achieve its dual mandate for full employment
and stable prices and “if this causes more fiscal issues, too
bad.”

Dudley cited a slowing of inflation measured by the annual
change in the personal consumption expenditures index. The gauge
slowed to a 2.3 percent gain in February from 2.9 percent in
September, above the Fed’s goal of 2 percent inflation.

“Even though the recent rise of gasoline prices mentioned
above could interrupt this pattern, we expect this moderation of
overall inflation to resume later this year,” Dudley said.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Joshua Zumbrun in Syracuse, New York at
jzumbrun@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Chris Wellisz at
cwellisz@bloomberg.net

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