Workforce Developments

Despite improvement in unemployment rate, America’s workforce remains ill-prepared to compete with the world

 by Julian L. Alssid

The unemployment rate fell below 10 percent in January to 9.7 percent. While this is positive news and a sign the stimulus may be kicking in, the mismatch between employer needs and the education and skills of much of the workforce remains. This was an issue before the Great Recession and it will persist and only get worse if we do not dramatically improve the way we prepare people for work in this country.

One of the factors contributing to the improvement in the unemployment number is the fact that more Americans have given up looking for work. In fact, the number of "discouraged job seekers" was at 1.1 million people in January, up from 734,000 this time last year. Added to this are those who are underemployed, working just a few days a week and not making enough to sustain a living wage, and you have about 16.5 percent of the workforce sitting on the sidelines or not being fully utilized.

The skills gap, or "skills recession," is a contributing factor to this phenomenon.  Many employers involved in advanced manufacturing, health care and energy cannot find qualified workers, despite near record unemployment.  Employers like Ace Clearwater Enterprises in California, which specializes in supplying parts to the aerospace and energy industries, which hired 70 people in 2009, only to see nearly half of them leave because they did not have the skills required to do the job. Or Spectrum Lighting in Massachusetts, which is having a hard time filling jobs because the local workforce doesn't have the expertise needed to work with more technically advanced "green" lighting systems.

Real wages have not improved for the average American in nearly a decade. Much of this has to do with the fact that many of the jobs Americans relied on for decades, blue-collar jobs that could be done with a high school education or a minimum of technical training, can now be done in China or Latin America for a fraction of the cost. This depresses wages for these kinds of low-skilled jobs in the U.S. as America tries to compete with the global workforce.

In order to compete successfully, America must become more strategic in its approach to workforce development. Our workforce development system must become more "demand-driven," which means a more effective matching of skills training with the needs of employers. If our country does not become more proactive on this front, it is only a matter of time before employers begin to figure out how to outsource those high skill, high wage jobs that are currently going unfilled.

   

Julian L. Alssid is the founder and executive director of Workforce Strategy Center, a nonprofit organization that advises leaders who seek to make education and workforce development more responsive to the economy.

Resources on jobs, human services and Obama's 2011 proposed budget

The devil is in the details. Wonder where they are in Obama's 2011 budget?

Here are a few places where you can learn about what the administration wants to do related to jobs and human services:

the National Skills Coalition (formerly known as The Workforce Alliance) offers this preliminary analysis of the proposed 2011 budget. They also have a great budget chart comparing the 2009 budget, ARRA, 2010 budget and Obama's 2011 proposal.

The Coalition for Human Needs is hosting a free webinar tomorrow, February 5, to explain the details. Speakers include Robert Greenstein, Executive Director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director of the Coalition on Human Needs.

UPDATE FEB 5: The webinar has been postponed due to snow. It's currently rescheduled for Tuesday, February 9, 3:00-4:30 p.m. EST

And for the more ambitious of you, here's the full text of the proposed budget, including appendices. 

Have other 2011 budget resources to recommend? Add them in the comments below. 

TANF Emergency Fund provides subsidized employment opportunities

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) stimulus package included $5 billion to establish a new Emergency Fund for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs. TANF is what's commonly referred to as traditional "welfare," and it's the program that replaced AFDC.

The Emergency Fund is intended to help TANF programs serve more families seeking employment opportunities and other forms of assistance during the economic downturn. These funds will allow programs to subsidize jobs, paying up to 100% of the wages for local employers who hire on clients.   

Because of timing and unanswered funding questions, the program was slow to roll out. Here in California, San Francisco and Santa Clara Counties led the way with early implementation. According to the SF Chronicle, San Francisco's Jobs Now program has used the TANF Emergency Fund to place just over 1,500 workers in subsidized employment and seeks to place at least 2,100 total.  It has about 3,000 people on a waiting list and 400 to 500 jobs waiting to get filled, according to Trent Rhorer, executive director of San Francisco's Human Services Agency.

General requirements include being enrolled in or eligible for the CalWORKs program or having a household income over the previous 30 days that was 200 percent below the federal poverty limit. There must be a child in the family under the age of 18, and participants must have the right to work in the US. There is no limit to the wages that someone can earn. Currently, the program is set to expire Sept 30, 2010 but many hope the program will be extended for an additional year as unemployment is projected to remain high.

TANF programs are hoping that the subsidized work experience will lead to unsubsidized employment down the road. At the very least, this program would allow low income families to earn a living and to gain valuable work experience.

For ex-offenders who are part of a CalWORKs family, this is an exciting opportunity to get back to the world of work. 

Contact your local social service agency to find out how TANF Emergency Funds are being administered in your county.

Racy Ming is manager of the Marin Employment Connection, the one-stop in Marin County, CA. She is also chair of the board for the California Re-Entry Program at San Quentin.

What should Congress do to create jobs? Tell us what you think

To be sure, there will be legislation on jobs. The House squeaked through a $154 billion jobs bill in December, and the Senate is working up their own version. I've heard one pundit say the Republicans won't dare do to it what they've done to health care legislation because they won't want to be seen as being opposed to jobs. Then again, the House version of the bill barely passed.

But will it be enough? Can Congress really pass legislation that will create jobs? 

How do you think they should go about doing it?  Vote here: 

To vote, just click in the box on the answer you like best.

If your answer isn't one of the choices above, then get in the comments and tell me what you think Congress should be doing to create jobs.

And please share this post with your colleagues and friends! I'd love to hear from them.

Buy local, bank local

Is it time to move your money?

The folks who brought us The Huffington Post and the 2005 version of Why We Fight think it is. And I think they're onto something.

Is the money in your checking and savings accounts being used by big banks to underwrite risky behavior on Wall Street? Or is it staying in your local community being loaned to homeowners and small businesses? If you care about how your money is being used, then you should check out the MoveYourMoney site. They explain not only why it's important to put your money in an institution that shares your values, but they'll help you find safe, stable community banks in your area where you can move your money.

This is just another way to use your money as your own, personal local stimulus package.

To help you get started, check out this short video from MoveYourMoney. And let me know what you think!

How to turn your holiday gift buying into a local stimulus package

If you're like most Americans, you're going to spend less this holiday season than you did last year. What's more, you're probably planning to pay cash. 

As bad as this sounds, spending less creates an opportunity to rethink what the holidays mean to us, to think carefully about the gifts we give and the workforce that makes and sells them.

You can think of the money you're planning to spend this season as your own personal stimulus package. Just like the Obama administration set priorities on what kinds of work they wanted federal stimulus money to support, you can do the same thing to support workers in your own city.

Is there a small business in your neighborhood you want to make sure stays in business? Like a favorite coffee shop, bike shop or hardware store? Then buy something from that store to give as a gift. 

Is there a local nonprofit doing good work that you want to make sure survives the recession? A women's shelter, food bank, arts organization or library? Maybe this is the year to make a donation in Uncle Bob's name rather than giving him another tie he'll never wear. 

Buy foodstuffs from a local farmer at the farmer's market, or a book from an independent press at a locally-owned bookstore. Buy a t-shirt advertising your favorite local restaurant, a toy produced from recycled materials at a factory powered by solar energy.

The point is this: decide what's important to you, what you want to make sure stays around, and spend your little holiday stimulus package on it.

And maybe this Friday, rather than joining the mayhem, you'll stay away from the stores and spend your time with family and friends.

Don't get me wrong - the causes of this crisis are truly terrible: layoffs, reduced work hours, hiring freezes, furloughs, pay cuts and economic fear. But the truth is, small businesses and nonprofits are hurting too. At the local level, your choices can make a real difference. Spend your holiday gift budget with them and your gift will go twice as far. Once to the recipient of the gift, and once to the place where you bought it.

You just might be the difference that keeps their doors open and keep someone in a job just a little longer.

Forty years of failed employment policy

The Great Recession didn't create today's employment crisis. It has only exacerbated and laid bare employment and earnings trends that began in the 1970s. One of those trends is a federal employment policy based on this idea: "Get the economy right; unleash the power of capital markets, and these labor market problems will take care of themselves."

So says Gordon L. Berlin, President of MDRC. He spoke earlier this year at a Recovery and Reemployment Research Conference sponsored by the Employment and Training Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor. MDRC is the outfit that does all those excellent evaluations and research reports on employment programs that you wish you had time to read.

My recommendation: don't skip out on reading Berlin's remarks. They explain how forty years of employment programs and policies have brought us to the state we're in today, where employment policy is viewed as a "backwater." In sum, he says, "the U.S. Department of Labor has not played a central role in the affairs of the nation's workforce for more than 40 years." In that time,

• The minimum wage has not kept up with inflation and remains far below its original historical benchmark of 50 percent of the average wage;
• The unemployment insurance system has eroded to the point where a majority of laid-off workers do not qualify for benefits; and
• Funding for Workforce Investment Act programs fell roughly 25 percent between 2000 and 2008 at a time when the economy twice fell into recession. 

Berlin focuses on the role of research in identifying which programs work so that we can replicate them and bring them to scale. This is the first White House administration in a long time, he says, that's actually interested in doing rigorous evaluations and investing in what works. He doesn't shy away from the tough issues either, like the way performance standards can sometimes create incentives to serve those who are most likely to land a job, rather than those who need the most help to get and keep one.

In speaking of dislocated workers, those who have worked and have soft skills but lack specific training for today's jobs, Berlin says this: "The key is to determine the role of public service employment in a period when cyclical unemployment is so severe that it could plausibly create a new generation of long-term structurally unemployed as the duration of unemployment reaches levels not seen since the Great Depression."

By "public service employment" he means New Deal-style job creation programs. If you've been reading this blog for any time at all, you know my position on that.

This is "an extraordinary moment for employment policy," Berlin told his audience in September. That's even more true today. Since then, unemployment nationally has hit double digits, and President Obama has announced plans for a "jobs summit" next month.

It's not just that jobs are the key to our recovery from this recession cycle, but that a fundamental change in workforce and employment policy has to happen. I'd say we need to enact new policies that ensure that

• Work pays enough to live on,
• We invest adequately in proven education and training programs needed for the jobs that are available, and
• When there isn't enough work to go around, a real safety net catches and helps lift up those in need.

Green grants galore

More stimulus dollars are on the way. The U.S. Department of Labor has just announced the award of $55 million worth of grants to job training programs for disadvantaged communities and labor market information agencies, to help people land green jobs. 

Get more details on all the grants and awardees.

Green job training programs are an obvious investment in these troubled times. But what about labor market info? It's hugely important too. If we don't have the right information about what green jobs are in demand and where, we can waste a lot of time and resources creating the wrong kinds of training programs.

DOL expects to award a total of $500 million for careers in energy efficiency and renewable energy from the Recovery Act. It's just a drop in the bucket compared to federal spending on the bank bailout, which I think reflects some upside-down priorities.

Still, this is only round one on the green jobs stimulus, and President Obama has announced a big jobs summit for some time next month. Maybe what will come out of that meeting is a much bigger investment in job creation in 2010 that will help turn the economy around for the rest of us.

Unemployment zooms past 10 percent

Much to the surprise of experts, and in the wake of seemingly good economic news yesterday, the Department of Labor released stats today showing the unemployment rate at 10.2 percent. This is the first time U.S. unemployment has been above 10 percent since 1983. To find unemployment that high before then, you have to dig all the way back to before World War II.

It had been looking like we might get through 2009 without getting into double digits. Instead, I think we're going to have a tough holiday season. The Dow can't stay above 10,000 for long with numbers like these.

Yesterday's Senate passage of another unemployment extension seems especially timely (wonder if folks in Congress got an early heads-up on the BLS data). President Obama will likely sign it soon.

It also begs the question of whether expanding unemployment benefits is enough. It certainly doesn't pay enough to live on long term, so it's questionable how much the extension can keep consumer spending alive. I've heard talk of a possible tax credit for job creation, or even large, federal public works projects along the lines of the New Deal era. 

If you add in the number of people who are working part-time when they'd prefer full-time, and those "marginally attached" to employment, we're looking at 17.5 percent of Americans who don't have the jobs they need.

I'm going to keep singing this tune until I get everyone to sing along with me: if the recovery depends on consumer spending, then the recovery depends on jobs.

Are we doing enough to create them?  

In time for the holidays: another unemployment extension

The Senate passed HR 3548 on Thursday, ensuring at least an additional 14 weeks of coverage for Americans at risk of losing their unemployment benefits. That is, as soon as President Obama signs it into law. He's expected to do that within days, possibly as early as Friday.

It's good news for unemployed Americans and their families, and for the economy at large. Economists say  the recovery depends on consumer spending, which will only fall if unemployed workers are left to hang in the wind. It's not as good as a true jobs-creation program, but it's better than nothing.

Experts expect Friday's data release from the U.S. Labor Department to show unemployment rising to 9.9 percent. Unemployment figures around the world don't offer any respite. With the Dow hitting 10,000 again and the U.S. economy growing at 3.5 percent over the most recent quarter, concerns are rising of a possible "jobless recovery."

Those of you who are employed, try taking it a little easier on the job. Your recent productivity gains might be making the boss think he doesn't need to hire your friends or family. 

WPA photo source: Wikimedia Commons 

The recovery depends on consumer spending

That's according to Dr. Arun Raha, Washington state's Chief Economist.

Having heard him speak, I have to agree Dr. Raha is a bit of an unexpected rock star. He put a whole lot of scary charts and graphs up on giant screens around the ballroom as we ate, but nobody lost their lunch. What's more, his agency has one of the most retro-cool websites I've seen in a long time: Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council.

If you remember when all of the World Wide Web looked like that, raise your hand.

 

Couple of big-ticket items I took away from Dr. Raha's talk:

• It's almost certain that the recession ended in August, but employment, consumer spending and government revenue collection are all still fragile and will lag behind.
• Unemployment will continue to rise until some time in spring.
• In Washington, government revenues from taxes will improve in 2011 but they won't return to 2008 levels until 2012. 
• The global economy is in recovery because of more than 700 stimulus packages passed by governments around the world - the policy response to the Great Recession is working.
• Real recovery from the recession in the US depends on consumer spending. If consumers don't pick up their spending soon, we're likely to see another economic downturn.

That last item is hugely important for those of us in workforce development. Consumers can't spend money they don't have, and if they don't have jobs, they won't have money. Which means that jobs are central to making sure the recovery continues. 

Those of us in workforce development know this, and we know what it takes to prepare workers for good jobs. We know where the skills gaps are. We've built excellent training partnerships to prepare people in our communities to meet industry labor needs. We also know where some of the challenges are - whether it's hiring, retention or promotion practices, or the places where the training and education pipeline gets clogged up.

We need to get out there with this message. The recovery requires investment in jobs and job training. It may require government investment in job creation. Perhaps it requires businesses to take job hiring risks. Those investments will pay off with a faster recovery for all.

Is another unemployment extension on the way?

According to official numbers from the Bureau of Labor Stats, some 2.3 million Americans are so discouraged by the job market that they've just given up looking for work. Many of them have been out of work so long they've exhausted their unemployment benefits.

Another 400,000 Americans are expected to run out of benefits this month. 1.4 million will exhaust their benefits by the end of the year. 

Governors of some of the hardest hit states have been asking for an extension.

On September 10, Rep. Jim McDermott of Washington State introduced HR 3548, the Unemployment Extension Act of 2009.  It would extend unemployment benefits an additional 13 weeks for long-term unemployed in states where the jobless rate is above 8.5 percent. That would cover 26 states, plus DC and Puerto Rico.

HR 3548 is expected to pass.

Can our economy recover without a real jobs creation program?

Two and a half years later, the pundits might be starting to catch up with your humble blogger.

This week, Time magazine explores the possibility of creating a WPA-type jobs program to put people back to work. The WPA - the Works Progress Administration - was a New Deal program that employed 8.5 million people at a cost of $11 billion. It put people back to work, put food on the table and kept people in their homes during the Great Depression.

But wait, you say. Unemployment was really, really high back during the Depression, on the order of 25%. Well, unemployment in Imperial County here in California is above 27% already. If you include all the people who have given up looking for work or who are working part-time when they want to work full time, rates in many states like Michigan and Oregon are above 20%.

Back in April 2007 I wrote a post on this blog titled It's time for a new New Deal. The jobs problem was already clear back then to many of us in workforce development. It took an almost complete economic collapse for the rest of the country to experience what had been happening in low income and disadvantaged communities. For the middle class to find out they can't leverage their future on cheap credit forever.

I argued then - and still do today - we need a jobs program that focuses on the industries where we have the greatest need to rebuild. Health care and education are both fraying at the edges, so they're at the top of my list. The Obama administration has made green jobs hip and sexy, so let's have them too. Jobs rebuilding the infrastructure that is crumbling beneath our feet as a result of disinvestment have to be a priority.

Even the narrow minded taxes-are-always-bad crusaders are starting to argue that we can't rebuild our economy without investing in jobs. They're wrong when they argue that tax cuts will magically create jobs, but they're right that creating jobs and preparing workers for those jobs is absolutely necessary.

Way back in November when the president-elect's team started talking about a stimulus plan, I was optimistic their investments would create the jobs we need to recover.

They haven't done that yet, but there's still time for lawmakers to reconsider whether it makes more sense to pay the the salaries of Wall Street executives or the wages of the people who teach our children, care for us when we are ill, and build the roads we drive every day.

What's happening with the Recovery Act in the states?

This is a quick follow up to a recent post about resources for tracking spending on the Recovery Act (ARRA). My good friends at the Department of Labor clued me in to some other great resources you should know about.

Stateline.org, a project of the Pew Center on the States, has lots of info on the Recovery Act. Check out their Stimulus and the States page, their Recession and Recovery links, and this article by Pamela M. Prah on state recovery websites. The article is packed with great links for more information. You'll also find links to every state ARRA-tracking website. 

Prah draws a lot of info from a recent report by Good Jobs First reviewing those state websites. GJF has scored and ranked the Recovery Act websites from all 50 states. Here's the big news:

Top five state Recovery Act websites:

1. Maryland
2. Colorado
3. Washington
4. West Virginia
5. New York

Five bottom feeders:

• Alabama
• Kansas
• Kentucky
• Illinois
• Utah

Some surprises on both of those lists. Like, when does West Virginia ever out-rank New York on good things?

Why does this matter?

A large share of funds from the Recovery Act are being channeled through state agencies. While the ARRA bill set general guidelines on how the money should be spent, state agencies will translate that into specific policies, rules and regulations. Many key decisions about how this money will be spent in your city or town are being made at the state level. If you want to influence how the stimulus will be invested, right now it's crucial to focus on what's happening in your state capital.

Resource for tracking Recovery Act opportunities

ARRA activities are so big and broad, with so many moving pieces across so many agencies, it can be hard to keep track of it all. You may be following grant opportunities through the Department of Labor, but are you aware of job training and related investments through other agencies?

There's always Recovery.gov, the official Obama administration site to track opportunities and spending. It's a beautiful site with lots of info. Many states have created their own recovery pages to keep the public informed about how they're spending the money.

Now Wider Opportunties for Women has developed a weekly scan that pulls a lot of information together, including upcoming deadlines across executive branch agencies, upcoming webinars, and reports by OMB, advocacy groups and others.

When I saw this document, my social media mind first thought this would make a great Twitter feed. WOW could provide each individual link as soon as they find it, rather than having to wait for the end of the week, and rather than having to send it out via email.

However, reading through the it made me realize the value of having a live human being compile all this info in one place and write a brief but more-than-140-characters summary of each item. So I wouldn't replace this document with Twitter, although if I had the resources, I'd add the Twitter feed to reach new audiences who seem to live their lives there.

The most recent weekly ARRA scan from WOW is below. Visit their website for more info.

 

WOW Weekly ARRA Scan

Workforce development gets some well deserved media coverage

Always nice to see workforce development get some attention from the mainstream media.

In this clip, Bryan Rogers, Director of the Pacific Gateway Workforce Investment Network in Long Beach, California, talks to CNN local. He discusses unemployment, ARRA, youth programs, and offers an overview of services provided by One-Stops and workforce boards to help people find jobs.

If you can't see the embedded video above, click here to watch.

Ex-offenders help build the green economy

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is pouring lots of money into "greening" the US economy, including $500 million which will be available as competitive grants through the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration.  This large scale investment should lead to new jobs in weatherization, energy efficiency, alternative energy, and other industries. 

How will workforce development professionals help to link ex-offenders to these green-collar jobs?  There are a few interesting programs already doing this work.  Previously I blogged about the RichmondBUILD program, a pre-apprenticeship construction skills and solar installation training program. RichmondBUILD started as a violence reduction strategy, and has a 90% placement rate.  According to Sal Vaca, the Director of the Richmond (CA) Workforce Investment Board, 35-40% of their participants are ex-offenders. 

Someone recently sent me an interesting article about a New Jersey Tree Foundation program which employs ex-offenders in planting trees.  And the Ella Baker Center in Oakland, CA has a Green Collars Job Campaign which is working to ensure that the new green economy helps to lift people out of poverty. 

Readers, what other programs are linking ex-offenders to the green economy? We'd like to highlight them here on Workforce Developments.

Community colleges + community-based organizations = graduation

President Obama has called on our nation's already-overloaded community colleges to play a key role in preparing America's workforce for the coming economic recovery. To make that happen, community colleges must do more to help a larger number of students successfully complete the certificate and degree programs they enter.

Right now, too many working adults who enter a community college program drop out before they earn a credential. That wastes time and resources for students and colleges. We have to learn how to do better.

But our community colleges - along with public educational institutions across the country - are facing deep budget cuts due to the economic downturn.

Can community colleges do more with less?

With budgets that were tight before the downturn hit, it's unlikely. But colleges can seek out ways to bring in new resources to support their students. They can find low-cost ways to restructure their offerings to make them more accessible to working adults, who make up the largest share of their students and whose retraining will be crucial to the economic recovery.

Here's one simple example. Many working adult students have young children. Without reliable childcare, they often can't finish their studies. Some community colleges offer low-cost childcare while students are in class. If a college doesn't have the budget to provide that childcare, it could seek out a partnership with a community-based organization (CBO) that can.

Take that a step further: If the CBO is housed in a building or center convenient for a community with high needs for education and training, the college could explore offering courses at the CBO's location.

Community colleges also can look to CBOs to provide counseling, case management or mentoring to help students stick with their studies when times get tough. They can help connect students to other resources in the community to help meet specific needs.

Let's not leave employers out of the partnership equation. Imagine earning a professional credential in college courses provided at your work site in the evenings, on weekends or even during paid work hours. Several employers located in the same geographic area with similar skilled labor needs could partner with a college to make that training available. After all, as employers cut back on the number of employees, it's likely that they will keep those who have a wider range of skills.

You get the idea: this isn't rocket science. Perhaps you're already thinking of your own ideas for innovative partnerships that can make community college more accessible and complete-able for working adults.

Airport University, which was founded by Port Jobs, is one example. It brings together two community colleges (South Seattle Community College and Highline Community College), employers at Sea-Tac Airport, the Port of Seattle and several community-based organizations.

Airport University offers onsite college classes to the 20,000 workers who work for the 100+ companies located at Sea-Tac International Airport. Through this partnership, airport employees can take credit-bearing classes at their worksite - the airport. This model has been adapted at Denver International Airport and at Baltimore- Washington International Airport.

We think that other local communities could easily adapt this model at airports, shopping malls, business parks, and other worksites where large numbers of companies and employees are located.

If you know of other good examples of community partnerships connected with local community colleges, please let me know in the comments below.

These are difficult economic times, but the difficulties create opportunities for colleges, CBOs, workforce development agencies, foundations and employers to re-think how we work together to maintain a vibrant, skilled labor force. As funding and budgets are cut, we should be very careful about how we deploy the resources we do have, and make sure we're getting the very best outcomes for the work we do. That may mean working with partners with whom we've never worked before, and taking on responsibilities we've never considered tackling.

No question, it will be a challenge. But these tough times demand it.

Guest blogger Susan Crane is Executive Director of Port Jobs a Seattle, WA-based action tank. Click below to read her previous posts:

Tuesday: Making community college work for working adults
Wednesday: The role of community colleges in the coming economic recovery 
Thursday: Community college priorities in tough economic times

Community college priorities in tough economic times

In these tough economic times, publicly funded institutions are getting hit hard. At community and technical colleges across the country, budgets are being slashed, while tuition and fees are being raised. Faculty and staff salaries are being frozen, summer school courses shut down, and grants to students are also being cut.

But these cuts in the bad times land on top of funding cuts took place in the good times. In earlier years, colleges managed by cutting back on "ancillary" services like academic advising, counseling or job placement, and by replacing full-time faculty with cheaper part-time adjuncts.

As a result, community college students have less support than ever to help them make smart decisions about career goals and classes.

Without good information and guidance, students may choose careers with little labor demand or limited advancement opportunity . They can find themselves taking classes that don't help them achieve their goals. Instructors rushing from one campus to the next may not have the time to take personal interest and help a student who's falling behind. Faculty and staff who don't know individual students well can't help them connect to good jobs.

It's hard enough to navigate college if you're well prepared for it. Many of the people community colleges serve are not. Some 39% of them nationwide are the first in their family to go to college. Many arrive needing remedial education.

As I wrote about on Tuesday and Wednesday, community college training will be one key to the economic recovery, but for that to work, we have to help more students complete their certificate and degree programs. Right now, far too many of them drop out along the way.

Dr. James Rosenbaum - keynote speaker at the Seattle King County Workforce Education Collaborative's forum tomorrow on improving student success at community colleges - has done extensive research on how to turn community college access into college success. Nationally, we've done well at the first. Now we need to turn to doing a better job of the latter.

In these economic times, and with Recovery Act money about to generate a burst of new labor demand, helping students complete their degrees faster is more important than ever. As policymakers and community college leaders make their next round of cuts, here are a few principles I recommend they keep in mind:

• Increasing degree completion rates for community college students is as important as getting them in the door.
• Counseling, advisement and supportive services that help students complete their studies can have a significant positive impact on completion rates.
• Job placement is always central to the community college mission. Today, it is an imperative. 
• When community colleges don't have the resources to provide additional services, partnerships with local employers, nonprofits and community-based organizations can fill gaps and help students complete their degree programs.

For more on that last point, tune in tomorrow.

Guest blogging this week is Susan Crane, Executive Director of Port Jobs in Seattle, WA. You can read her previous posts here and here.

The role of community colleges in the coming economic recovery

There are nearly 1,200 community and technical colleges across the U.S. with some 11.7 million students. By design, community colleges provide education for all who want or need it. 

Community colleges are where Americans go to

• Get their first two years of a four-year college education 
• Save money on a four-year college education
• Learn a new trade or job skill
• Learn to speak English 
• Get adult basic education in reading and math

Or some combination of all of the above. 

If you don't work with community colleges, you may be surprised to find out who their students are.  According to the American Association of Community Colleges, the average age of a community college student is 29 years old, and 13% of them are over 40. 17% are single parents. 

What's more, most community college students are also workers. Among full-time students, 27% are employed full time and about half are employed part-time. Among part-time students, half are employed full time and a third are employed part time.

With so many students working toward so many different goals with so much else going on in their lives, it's no surprise that a few students might fall through the cracks. As I wrote yesterday, the problem is that far too many of them do. 

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is likely to add to the community colleges rolls. Economist Mark Zandi of Moodys.com has projected that the stimulus bill is likely to add or save 4 million jobs across the U.S., many of them in fields where community colleges do much of the training, like construction, manufacturing and retail trade.

We can also expect investments in green industries – a major part of the Obama administration's economic recovery plan – to add to training demands for community colleges. Research shows that many of the green jobs created in the energy efficiency, wind power and biofuels industries will be in construction, manufacturing and warehousing. Again, fields where community and technical colleges do most of the training.

If the projections are right, labor demand will outstrip supply. Many Americans who've been working in other industries will need to be retrained in order to take advantage of those jobs. Many of them have families and will need help to make sure they complete their training programs. 

Community and technical colleges, private career schools, employers, workforce development agencies, community-based organizations and workforce intermediaries must work together to develop a seamless training system that allows workers to get training

• In more convenient locations;
• At times that allow students to continue working while going to school;
• With supports for child care and transportation; and 
• That is combined with basic language and math skills training so that a wider range of students can take advantage of these opportunities.

This isn't just an economic downturn. We’re going through a major industrial restructuring in the U.S. Large corporations and entire industries are disappearing. New ones will emerge, and we must begin to prepare tomorrow's workforce today. Improving completion rates at community colleges will be one important piece of the puzzle.

Guest blogging this week is Susan Crane, Executive Director of Port Jobs in Seattle, WA. Port Jobs is not-for-profit action tank that develops practical programs and supports public policies that increase access to living wage jobs, fostering a more vibrant and equitable economy for residents of and businesses in Seattle and King County.