Workforce Developments

Your state of economic recovery

Got my Washington Workforce Development Newsletter email today from the state's Workforce Training and and Education Coordinating Board. I clicked through to take a look at the website that's been set up to help state residents understand the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) and how stimulus funds are being spent in that state. It's at recovery.wa.gov.

As many people know, President Obama has set up a site at Recovery.gov to track stimulus spending nationally.

So I wondered if any other states have done the same thing. I checked recovery.wi.gov and found that Wisconsin has set up a page for its citizens. My next two tries (NJ and FL) didn't turn anything up. By now I was hooked, and went through all fifty states (plus DC and the eight other non-state jurisdictions).

Turns out Montana and Vermont have already set up their recovery pages. California appears to have a placeholder ready to go. Perhaps by the time you click through there will be content there.

When will the other states catch up?

If you find other state pages dedicated to accountability and tracking of stimulus spending, please let me know.

UPDATE March 11: Indiana and Ohio now have recovery pages set up as well. Thanks to Susan Pines and Cindy Bailie (via Twitter) for the info.

Obama urges Americans to get career training

From President Obama's address to Congress last night:

It is our responsibility as lawmakers and educators to make this system work.  But it is the responsibility of every citizen to participate in it.  And so tonight, I ask every American to commit to at least one year or more of higher education or career training.  This can be community college or a four-year school; vocational training or an apprenticeship.  But whatever the training may be, every American will need to get more than a high school diploma.

Because rebuilding our economy requires a smarter, better skilled workforce.

I almost did a double-take when I heard those words. He didn't just promise to provide it, but called on all Americans to seek out training and education so each of us can play a role in that rebuilding. Which is what workforce development is all about. Welcome to our world!

Read the full speech or watch it here. 

We have a Labor Secretary

Hilda Solis was confirmed earlier today as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor. The Senate vote was 80-17.

She's the 25th person to hold the position, the seventh woman in the job and the first Latino. For a list of past Labor Secretaries, click here.

For earlier coverage of the rocky road to filling the job, click here and here. You'll find her official biography here.

To get a sense of the new Secretary's personal style and priorities, here's a video of Representative Solis talking about green jobs and optimism on the floor of the House last summer:

Now that we have a Labor Secretary in place, let's get to work rebuilding our economy, one job at a time.

More than a quarter of unemployment claims challenged by employers

The message to workers is be prepared. With nearly 5 million Americans on unemployment, the number of employers challenging the unemployment claims of their former employees is on the rise. Read the story in the Washington Post, or watch the video on ABC News.

Wayne Vroman of the Urban Institute has crunched the numbers from the Department of Labor. He finds that today, employers are challenging about one-quarter of all unemployment claims. That's double the rate from the early 1980s. Take a look at what he found:

(Click here if you don't see the chart.)

Government pays unemployment benefits, so why would employers challenge claims by their former employees? Because the unemployment tax rate paid by employers is based on the number of employees they lay off. More unemployment claims by former workers means they'll pay a higher rate. So there's an economic incentive to challenge the claim. Today, a business can hire companies like TALX in St. Louis to help them file and manage their former employees' unemployment claims.

Although the number of challenges being filed by employers is on the rise, Vroman found that the number they ultimately win has stayed the same. In fact, employers lose about two-thirds of the time. 

Remember - if you're fired for misconduct or if you quit, you're not eligible for unemployment benefits. Most employers use one of those claims as the basis for their challenge.

On Feb 12, the Washington Post invited readers to ask Vroman questions about their unemployment situation. Click here for a transcript of their conversation. If you want to know about the problems and confusion people are facing when filing unemployment, read some of these questions. Kudos to the WaPo for offering this opportunity.

If you're concerned about being laid off - or if you are laid off - here are some tips:

• Get it in writing. Get a letter from your employer explaining that you've been laid off.
• If you have copies of former reviews saying you're a great employee, keep those 
• If there are witness to your being laid off, get their names and contact info
• Never sign anything that says you waive your right to unemployment benefits
• Always fill out your unemployment claim completely, honestly and accurately. An error anywhere on your form could lead to you being denied benefits.
• Don't quit or even pretend that you quit after being laid off in order to save face 
• If you know you were laid off due to no fault of your own and a former employer challenges your claim, fight back

For more unemployment coverage, click here.

Construction notice

If Workforce Developments doesn't look quite right to you, don't worry, you're still here on your favorite blog. I'm doing a little behind-the-scenes technology cleanup work to make the site a little easier to access.

Please bear with me. This should resolve and be back to normal within a day or so.

As always, thanks for reading.

Put Workforce Developments on your site

Your favorite blog, Workforce Developments, is now available as a "blidget." 

That's a "widget" made from a blog. A widget is an online tool you can copy and paste into your own website.

Take a look at the orange box below. It shows current headlines here on Workforce Developments (don't see it? click here). If you click here, you can get the piece of code that will allow you to copy and paste that box into your website or blog. You can even change the color and size to fit your site. Every time I put up a new post on Workforce Developments, this blidget on your site will automatically update. You can click from there straight to the posts you want to read.

If you'd rather get Workforce Developments delivered to your email inbox, click here and follow the directions. If you want to add it to your RSS reader, click here. (To find out what an RSS reader is, click here for one of the best educational online videos I've ever seen.)

Thanks to the fine folks at Widgetbox for making widgets easy enough that I can make them.

For more workforce development-related technology posts, click here.

Capitol Words takes Congress at its word

Totally for fun - Capitol Words is a website that takes text from the Congressional Record and turns the most commonly-used words into cool word clouds. It's also incredibly useful. You'll quickly see what Congress is talking about.

What's more, Capitol Words identifies who's talking the most, and drills down to create word clouds for every member of Congress. You can look at the most recent day, week or see a full Congressional session. Here's what Congress was talking about over the past full year (Feb 14, 2008 through Feb 13, 2009):

In case you were wondering, the top five most verbose members of Congress in that time were

1. Charles Grassley (R-IA) 49,005 words  
2. Thomas Coburn (R-OK) 41,947
3. Richard Durbin (D-IL) 41,110 
4. Max Baucus (D-MT) 39,024 
5. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) 38,167

The five least talkative members of Congress were

1. Edward Pastor (D-AZ) 6 words
2. Michael Michaud (D-ME) 8
3. Grace Napolitano (D-CA) 9
4. Brian Bilbray (R-CA) 12
5. Joseph Cao (R-LA) 13

CapitolWords.org is a very cool project of the Sunlight Foundation.

The final stimulus package - links and related info

The House and Senate agreed to final details of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (HR 1) on Friday and sent the $787 billion bill to President Obama to sign. He's expected to sign it in Denver on Tuesday.

A total of $51 billion was cut from the Senate version. TWA reports the final bill includes just shy of $4 billion for job training and related activities through the Workforce Investment Act (do you think that's enough?). It also includes another extension and an increase in unemployment payments, plus support for states running out of funds to pay unemployment.

Links related to the bill:

--Summary of the bill from the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee: click here. This summary describes programs and projects where the money will be spent.

--Summary from the Appropriations committees: click here. Lists how much money will be spent where.

--Joint explanatory statements from the conference committee on appropriations provisions and tax, unemployment and other provisions. 

--Text of the bill, marked up with margin notes and everything: Division A (appropriations) and Division B (tax, unemployment, health, state fiscal relief and other provisions) 

--Text of a colloquy on the Senate floor explaining the intent of workforce development provisions 

--President Obama's statement on the bill from February 14

--Recovery.gov where they promise to itemize the spending and show us how our tax dollars are being spent.

Who's feeling shovel-ready?

Update on the stimulus: Senators talk about workforce provisions

In Friday's debate on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act bill (H.R.1), Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) engaged in a colloquy on the floor of the Senate.

They discussed the intent of various workforce development-related provisions in the bill, and talked about how they intend for funds to be distributed through the Workforce Investment Act system, and what their priorities are for those funds. Here are few highlights: 

Mrs. MURRAY. First, is it the Senator's understanding that the additional funding provided through the Workforce Investment Act formula grants for adults and dislocated workers will be used predominantly for the direct delivery of services to those who are the most heavily impacted by this recession--the unemployed and the underemployed?

Mr. HARKIN. Yes, the Senator's understanding is correct. I included a provision in this recovery bill that reinforces the requirement in the WIA to use adult State grant funding to serve certain priority populations, such as those with low incomes or on public assistance. I believe that we should target these funds on the delivery of services to those who have been adversely impacted by our recent economic crisis. I also believe local workforce boards should utilize existing authority to support needs-related payments to help engage individuals in training, if such support is appropriate and effective.

And later,

Ms. STABENOW. Is it also the Senator's understanding that the most effective strategies in helping workers maintain and secure new jobs in emerging and viable industries, including the energy efficient and advanced drive train vehicle industry, the biofuels industry, the energy-efficient building, construction, and retrofits industries, and the aerospace industry are those supported by strategic partnerships among State and local workforce boards; institutions of higher education, including community colleges and other training providers; labor organizations; industry; and economic development entities that use sector or cluster-based training approaches for developing job training strategies and career pathway initiatives that lead to economic self-sufficiency?

Mrs. MURRAY. The Senator from Michigan is correct and makes an important point. Effective strategies for helping workers retool for jobs in viable industries should be informed by the critical stakeholders she noted.

There's more, on youth programs, sector initiatives and community colleges and other training providers. You can read the full colloquy on pages 1796-98 of the Congressional Record.

Big thanks to the good folks at the National Center on Education and the Economy and to the California Workforce Association for distributing this info.

NAWB seeks Executive Director

The National Association of Workforce Boards has just announced a search for a new Executive Director.

NAWB is the leading workforce association that represents the nation's nearly 650 business-led Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) and also serves other associated organizations in the workforce industry with one common goal: Helping America Work.

Our mission is to support members through a comprehensive program of advocacy, training and technical assistance, communication, and the promotion of strategic partnerships for the advancement of our nation's workforce.

Think you've got the right stuff to lead in the tough economy, green jobs era?  Click here for more details.

Stimulus bill passes Senate 61-37

The Senate has just passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as the stimulus bill, on a vote of 61 for and 37 against (click here for the roll call). 

Next up, negotiations between President Obama, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (House) and Senator Harry Reid (Senate). The Senate bill contains $838B in spending and tax cuts, while the House bill contains $819B.

I recently blogged some comparative info about what workforce development and employment services funds are in the two bills. Right now, each bill include something in the neighborhood of $4B (less than one-half of 1% of the total spending).

Click here to vote on how much you think the stimulus should invest in workforce development, job training and employment services.

UPDATE: Thanks to The Workforce Alliance for their continued and timely good work analyzing the stimulus bill. Here's their side-by-side comparison of workforce development and employment services provisions in the House and Senate versions of the bill. 

American Recovery Bill: Workforce Development

If you can't see the embedded document above, click here to read it on TWA's site. 

Workforce community and probation department join forces (part 2)

Last week I wrote a post about the Road to Work resource fair for people on probation in Marin County.  This was a Probation-Employment Taskforce collaboration between the Marin Employment Connection (One-Stop and partners) and the County Probation Department. Last week's post was a description about the event; part 2 is a discussion of the outcomes and lessons learned.

It is early yet to know the impact of our efforts, and reports from participating agencies have been mixed, but promising. 

 

Among the more promising outcomes:

- Community Action Marin, a non-profit assisting low-income individuals toward self sufficiency, reported about 33% of contacts made at the Road to Work followed through so far for services.

- Marin City Community Development Corporation reported receiving follow up inquiries about their training programs from people living all over Marin.

- Tamalpais Adult Education reported having several people sign up for GED preparation courses.

Quite a few organizations had people sign up but not follow through, including the Marin Employment Connection which set up special orientation sessions only to have no one come. And a number of agencies did not have a way to track whether or not people found them through the Road to Work event.

The Probation-Employment Taskforce plans to repeat this event 2-3 times a year.  While we will adjust the content and timing of our event, here are some elements that I think were key to our being able to accomplish what we have thus far:

- Willing partners.  This event was enthusiastically supported by a broad base of partners who contributed staff time to planning as well as the funds for coffee at the event, canvas bags, raffle prizes, and a shuttle to bring people in from the bus stop. 

- A committee of like-minded citizens.  In addition to organizational support, this event would not have been possible without a core group of committed volunteers who made it happen.  I give big ups to Marin County's Probation Department.  The half a dozen or so probation officers who are a part of the Taskforce are genuinely concerned about improving outcomes for their clients and are willing to go the extra mile toward that end.  Our workforce partners on the Taskforce are also equally committed. 

- Leadership.  As I think about how this can be replicated in other communities, it seems that a necessary component is having someone willing to lead the charge.  So many people have said, "I have thought for the longest time that this is something we should be doing in Marin!"  Someone has to be willing to take on approaching the various partners and calling people together.

At the debriefing meeting, a state parole officer who has been conducting PACT (Parole and Community Team) meetings in neighboring counties for over ten years gave his input that it is almost impossible to track the outcomes from these types of events, but it is nonetheless important to offer this service since you never know who will be positively influenced by it.  I would like to hear back from readers:

- Have you found a good way to track outcomes from these types of events?

- What else do you think is needed to be able to have this type of collaboration in your community?

(Click here to read part 1)

Workforce community and probation department join forces (part 1)

In Marin County, CA, our One-Stop Career Center (Marin Employment Connection) joined forces with the County Probation Department to form the Probation-Employment Taskforce.  In the interest of full disclosure, I chair the Taskforce. 

This group of like-minded citizens share a common goal - to reduce recidivism in our community by better connecting people on probation to the workforce community.  The Taskforce, comprised of probation officers and representatives from social services and workforce development organizations, decided to put on a resource fair entitled "The Road to Work."  The first event occurred January 13th, 2009.

People on probation were required to attend by their probation officers (POs) and in some cases as part of their sentencing.  Of the 150+ people who received letters telling them to attend, 89 came to the Road to Work.  Twenty different organizations sent staff to be available to speak with the attendees.

The program included a keynote speaker, short talks by three people who have turned their lives around and are now successfully employed, as well as short introductions of each of the agencies present.     

After that, the attendees were given time to visit with individual tables and find out about services that might be of interest to them.  The plan was for every person to to leave with a next step.  To make the event more positive, individuals also contributed funds which allowed us to have a raffle of prizes and gift cards.  Take a look at the program and a list of participating agencies for more information. 

Attendees were asked to complete evaluation forms about the event and the overall feedback was very positive.  Many of them cited the inspirational speakers as the best thing about the event.  Many also mentioned feeled valued and cared about by the large number of organizations present.  Going forward, the Taskforce plans to repeat the Road to Work 2-3 times a year.

In a previous post I mentioned the Urban Institute's "Jail Administrator's Toolkit for ReEntry," which recommends that corrections professionals work with their local social service providers to serve their common clientele.  This is how we have approached it in Marin. 

What are some ways you have tried to collaborate in your community? 

What lessons have you learned?

(Check back again later for part 2 of this post - outcomes and lessons learned.)

Who's holding up the Solis Labor Secretary confirmation?

With the number of mass layoffs announced by U.S. companies over the past two weeks approaching 100,000, you might wonder why we don't have a Labor Secretary hard at work in the Frances Perkins Building yet.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee held its first confirmation hearing for Hilda Solis, Obama's choice to run the U.S. Department of Labor, on January 9. Republicans didn't like her answers, and it's being reported that an unnamed Senator has halted the confirmation process by threatening to put a parliamentary hold on the nomination.

Solis has been a strong supporter of organized labor, and both her votes and past actions on behalf of labor are under scrutiny. Specifically, the GOP opposes her support for the Employee Free Choice Act, which would allow employees to organize unions by having workers simply sign a card ("card check") rather than going through an election process. They also dislike her position on pay discrimination legislation. Additional questions have been raised about Solis' role on the board of American Rights at Work, which has lobbied on behalf of EFCA and other labor legislation.

For more on the EFCA, here's the AFL-CIO (pro) and the Heritage Foundation (con).

Solis is another in a long line of Obama nominees who've been put on hold by the GOP. Most, including Eric Holder (Attorney General), Hillary Clinton (State), Lisa Jackson (EPA) and Nancy Sutley (White House Council on Environmental Quality) have been lifted.

The Associated Press reports this morning that the committee vote on Solis could come as early as Wednesday.

With her background on labor issues and in the context of our current economic crisis, some are comparing Solis to Frances Perkins, Labor Secretary under President Franklin Roosevelt. Perkins was the first woman at the helm at Labor, and the building housing the agency is named for her. She was a controversial pick as well. 

It was frustrating to watch as the Obama administration named one cabinet member after another without naming a Labor secretary. This gave the appearance that Labor wasn't important, although it's been said that the nomination was slowed because several people turned down the job first.

I hope we'll see a vote soon. The Department of Labor needs to play a strong role in overseeing how workforce development, job training and employment services funds from the stimulus bill are spent. State systems are struggling to keep up with booming numbers unemployment claims, and Labor could help. When the stimulus money does come through, it's likely to create demand for more skilled workers than are available, which will require a quick uptick in job training to get people ready to work.

I'd hate to see Labor sidelined just at the time when its expertise is needed.

How much should the stimulus include for workforce development? Take the poll

Last week the House passed its version of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - also known as the economic stimulus bill. The Senate released the text of its version too.

The two versions don't entirely match, so H.R. 1 and S.1 will head to committee after they're passed. Each bill sets aside something in the neighborhood of $4 billion for workforce development and employment service activities.

Is it enough to get Americans back to work? I don't think so, but I'd like to hear from you.

Do you think $4 billion is too little, about right or too much? To take the poll, just click on your answer in the box below.

To explain your answer more completely, click on the comments. If you'd like to suggest an alternative amount, tell me what that is and why.