'We're stuck in a never-ending cycle'

"I HAD been working as a painter and decorator since I was 17,but I have been unemployed now for six months.

"With the death of the construction industry nobody is employinganybody, there's not even Government jobs going because there havebeen cutbacks on maintenance and the whole industry has gone.

"Every time you go into the job centre there's no opportunitieswhatsoever, there's no jobs coming up. They send you on back-to-work schemes, but they're basically meaningless.

"You get an extra Pounds 40 a week, which is a pittance. I can'tlive on that, especially as I have got a young kid, it's very hard.

"All my mates, 90% of who were in the construction industry aswell, are all doing nothing, on the dole and going into the jobcentre and getting the same response.

"We are just stuck in this never-ending cycle of going to the jobcentre, dole, job centre, dole, looking in the papers and on theinternet.

"I love where I live, I don't want to go anywhere, I want to livein my own town and have a decent quality of life."