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Labor and Employment

WorkNotes

Fall 2001

Congress Rescinds Dislocated Worker Money
Business Involvement, Low-Wage Workers and Youth Funding Are Subjects of New Pubs.
Rural Conference Cancelled!
Just What is the Learn, Work and Earn Project?

WorkNotes' Archive

State Dislocated Worker Programs Cut $110 Million

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently released its plan of how to divvy up the Congressionally mandated reduction of this year's Workforce Investment Act (WIA) dislocated worker money to the states. In the mid-July supplemental spending bill, $67.5 million was rescinded from the national reserve account for serving dislocated workers and an additional $110 million was deducted from state dislocated worker funds.

How will states be affected? Hopefully it won't be such a hard hit, although it does erode confidence that Congress will be benevolent with workforce training funding in the upcoming budget negotiations for the next fiscal year. The amount taken from each state will depend on the amount of unspent money from local areas as of June 30, 2001. The states that have spent the most will lose the least. But states that have a large portion of unused funds will take the greatest hit. DOL will publish the revised dislocated worker allotments on September 25, 2001. Once states learn their share of the rescission, state workforce boards and governors may want to reallocate the remaining unobligated funds to local areas, so that areas that spent at reasonable rates won't be penalized.

On a brighter note, in addition to the dislocated worker rescission, the supplemental spending bill also included an additional $25 million for WIA youth programs. The extra money will be given to 34 states based on this year's original formula (the other 16 states received more than the WIA formula amounts because they had been held harmless at JTPA funding levels). For the full guidance letter, please log onto http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach/TEGL3-01.pdf.

 

Recent Publications of Note

Jobs for the Future in association with the National Association of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently published a report entitled Everybody WINs: Effectively Involving Business in Workforce Development. The report examines how workforce development and welfare policies create obstacles for both employers and potential employees and presents policy recommendations to help overcome these barriers. Everybody WINs' prime thesis is that the workforce system has primarily focused on assisting low-income workers with training and not paid enough attention to the employers of these workers, thereby creating a mismatch between the types of skills taught and the real-time needs of business and industry.

From this perspective, the report presents policy strategies for engaging employers, addressing the needs of hard-to-employ workers and determining the appropriate roles within the workforce system. For a PDF version of the report go to the National Association of Manufactures website www.nam.org/workforce.

States of Change: Policies and Programs to Promote Low-Wage Workers' Steady Employment and Advancement was released in May 2001 by Public/Private Ventures, a nonprofit organization working to improve social policies and programs for youth and young adults. The report interjects real stories of people transitioning off welfare and into low paying jobs, putting a human face on this policy area. In addition to presenting state approaches from California, Minnesota, Oregon and Texas to keep and advance low-wage workers, the report poses policy ideas that include:

• defining a state strategy to allow full-time employees to earn incomes above the poverty level.
• funding and ensuring access to services for workers wanting to move to a family-supporting income.
• emphasizing employment retention and wage advancement though performance measures.
• supporting businesses that provide advancement and retention opportunities for their employees.

States of Change also includes insight into integrating TANF and WIA services and various program ideas to support policy changes. To read the report on-line, go to http://www.ppv.org/content/reports/statesofchange.html.

If you're curious about all the federal and foundation funding available for youth programs in your district and state, you may want to check out Sources Of Funding For Youth Services. This recent Department of Labor sponsored publication provides a comprehensive listing of potential partners and available funding that local youth councils can tap to enhance service delivery to youth. The guide also contains information on the key elements of developing a proposal when trying to partner with potential funders. State legislators will find it interesting not only as a practical guide for which federal funding can be used for aspects of youth services but also as a tool to help their local areas knit together funding to support all aspects of youth development. A free on-line version is available at http://www.doleta.gov/youth_services/maps-founding.asp.

 

Attention!! DOL Rural Conference Canceled

The U.S. Department of Labor's Southern and Delta Regional Rural Conference entitled "Preparing Leaders to Succeed: Reaching Higher Ground" was canceled. The conference was scheduled for September 17-18 in Louisville, Kentucky. DOL still hopes to gather faculty as a focus group to outline content for a future publication on workforce and economic development in rural areas.

 

NCSL Is Here to Help - The Learn, Work and Earn Project

For the past fourteen years NCSL has sponsored an employment and training project to assist the legislators and legislative staff with information on a range of policy topics that work towards a fit state and local economy. The project has addressed a broad variety of public policy interest areas including such issues as workforce development, job training, youth employment, at-risk youth and dropout prevention, educational reform as it relates to workforce development, literacy programs, entrepreneurial and self-employment programs, and school-to-work transition efforts. Our project covers issue areas that span education, economic development and sometimes social services to support people finding and keeping a job with family-supporting wages and businesses finding or developing workers with up-to-date skills to ensure a healthy state economy.

The Learn, Work and Earn Project provides research, on-site technical visits, testimony and publications to our members to strengthen workforce development initiatives in the states. Learn, Work and Earn staff travel to state capitols to testify to legislative bodies on implementing the Workforce Investment Act and on strategies to sustain school-to-career transition. In addition to addressing the implication of federal laws, we also share what other states have done legislatively to drive their workforce development system toward reform.