Confirmation for Labor Secretary Delayed

The Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) announced on Wednesday, April 24, 2013, it was delaying the Committee confirmation vote for Secretary of Labor-Designate Thomas Perez until Wednesday, May 8, 2013. Minority members of the Committee requested the hearing be delayed as they seek additional information on the nominee. 

Senate HELP Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA) said in a written statement that, “While I continue to believe there are no impediments to Mr. Perez’s confirmation, I am agreeing to postpone his Committee vote until May 8th, in order to allow those Senators who have asked for the time to request additional information they believe they need and to evaluate his qualifications.”

Job Corps Enrollments On Again

The US Labor Department lifted the hold on Job Corps enrollments Monday, ending the action took in January to deal with an estimated $60 million shortfall for the federal job-training program.

The move comes as good news for individuals who have been locked out of the program, but the Job Corps still plans to reduce enrollment by 20 percent, according to the National Job Corps Association.

The Job Corps, which enrolls about 60,000 students each year, has encountered two consecutive budget deficits since USDOL moved the program’s budgeting and procurement operations from the Office of Job Corps to the Employment and Training division. The previous shortfall reached $30 million and prompted the Labor Department to freeze Job Corps enrollment for the first time in its 48-year history last summer and again in December.

Acting Secretary Harris on Impact of Sequestration

On Tuesday, April 16, 2013, while testifying before the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies on the proposed fiscal year 2014 budget for the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL), Acting USDOL Secretary Harris responded to questions on the effect of sequestration on USDOL programs.

Acting Secretary Harris said sequestration, “cost the Labor Department $3.1 billion and that’s money that comes out of job training for workers who are trying to transition into civilian jobs.” Rep. DeLauro also asked Acting Secretary Harris to comment on the larger trend of funding for workforce programs declining over the last decade, which she cited at about one billion dollars in actual dollars over the last 11 or 12 years. Acting Secretary Harris cited an example -- saying, “that we have lost 800 American Job Centers – one stop career centers -- around the country, 20 percent of the total.”

Acting Secretary Testifies on FY14 Budget

Acting Secretary of Labor Seth Harris testified before the House Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies on the proposed fiscal year 2014 budget for the U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) released last week.

Acting Secretary Harris, in his opening statement, said the Administration proposes reforming the unemployment system into a reemployment system, training workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own by creating a Universal Displaced Worker Program and the Department’s renewed efforts in assisting veterans find civilian jobs and promoting adoption of several unemployment insurance integrity initiatives, State Information Data Exchange Systems (SIDES) and the Treasury Offset Program (TOP), by states.

USDOL Priorities for FY 2014

Investing in job creation, workforce innovation, building the skills of American workers and putting the nation's veterans back to work are among the priorities in the Department of Labor's fiscal year 2014 budget request to the Congress. "The investments we make at the department will help create good jobs, upgrade workers' skills so that they can succeed in those jobs, and make sure Americans can support their families with a decent wage and secure benefits," acting Secretary of Labor Seth D. Harris said in announcing the budget request on April 10.

The FY 2014 budget seeks $12.1 billion in discretionary funding for the department. To help the long-term unemployed get back to work, the department proposes two initiatives: Re-employment NOW, which incorporates Unemployment Insurance reforms, and Pathways Back to Work Fund, to make it easier for persons to remain connected to the workforce and gain new skills for long-term employment. The budget includes an innovative reform effort, the Universal Displaced Worker program, which will modernize and accelerate the delivery of training and employment services to workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. And the request also calls for significant investments in new funding to assist veterans, particularly those with disabilities, in finding employment.

 

Unemployment Rate for Americans Under Age 25

According to CBS News, unemployment rates for Americans under the age of 25 are the highest since the end of World War II.  It's a situation that is unlikely to change anytime soon, according to a new report.

Since 2007, the average official unemployment rate for people under 25 has been 18 percent, 5.5 points higher than for the preceding 15 years, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics figures. This would seem to make the 16.2 percent rate for March look like an improvement.

But that rate, like the government's general unemployment rate, does not account for those who have dropped out of the labor force. Since 2007 the youth labor-force participation rate has dropped from 69 percent to 64.7 percent in 2012. Last month about 236,000 young people dropped out of the workforce. If you include them, the rate balloons to 22.9 percent and disturbingly close to the EU's 23.9 percent rate for the same age group.

CCC in History

Eighty years ago this week, President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched the Civilian Conservation Corps — a pioneering national jobs program that heralded a major step forward in the nation's recovery from the Great Depression. An early hallmark of Roosevelt and Secretary Frances Perkins' visionary New Deal, the CCC provided jobs to unemployed young men in rural conservation projects —planting trees, managing fires, carving out roads and trails, and building infrastructure for parks and wilderness areas. The program exemplified interdepartmental collaboration, with the Labor Department recruiting young workers for the program through a newly formed National Re-Employment Service (a quarter of a million enrollees joined the corps in just two months). When the program ended in 1942, millions of young men had participated. The legacy of the CCC endures today, not only in the lasting contributions it made to the stewardship of our natural heritage, but in the capacity for the Labor Department and others to provide employment and training programs.

(From the USDOL Newsbrief April 4, 2013)