The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: The Role of Workforce Programs

7 Other Related Initiatives

173 7 Other Related Initiatives Labor Market Information, Green Jobs, and Subsidized Employment Joyce Kaiser Capital Research Corporation The Recovery Act affected many aspects of the workforce investment system. This section summarizes provisions that were separate from but interacted with the act’s provisions for Workforce Investment Act (WIA), Wagner-Peyser, Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), and Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs in at least some of the states included in this study. The three areas discussed here are 1) labor market information (LMI) improvements, 2) green jobs initiatives, and 3) implementation of the subsidized employment programs authorized under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Emergency Fund. LABOR MARKET INFORMATION SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS The Recovery Act, along with formula funding, provided either new resources or new motivations to improve, expand, or upgrade automated labor market information systems in many of the study states. Major motivations for the Recovery Act initiatives around LMI were to encourage states to upgrade their LMI systems and to improve their overall workforce investment systems to incorporate emerging or expanding green jobs occupations and industries related to renewable energy and energy efficiency. State Labor Market Information Improvement Grants, funded by the Recovery Act, were awarded to individual 174 Kaiser states and consortia of states to enhance and upgrade their LMI infrastructure in various ways, as well as to improve the technology. The grants are listed in Tables 7.1 and 7.2. All but two study states (North Dakota and Wisconsin) participated in the Recovery Act LMI Improvement Grants. A few examples of how these funds were used follow: • Colorado (consortium participant). Colorado received $245,000 in grant funds, aimed at providing timely and comprehensive information on current and future industry workforce supply and demand conditions. Licenses for the Help-Wanted OnLine (HWOL) Data Series from the Conference Board were procured in June 2010. The LMI Gateway Web site was updated during the past year and now includes a number of additional features including Help-Wanted OnLine job, occupation, and employer data for Colorado. HWOL data has been referenced in LMI economic analyses and presentations. • Michigan (consortium participant). Under the LMI Improvement grant (on which Indiana and Ohio collaborated), there were a number of important achievements, including the following four: 1) LMI staff in Michigan and Ohio produced a Green Jobs Report , which assessed the types of green jobs emerging in the consortium states and skills required of workers to fill these jobs (including transferable skills that auto workers have, allowing them to make the transition to employment within the green jobs sector). 2) The consortium staff developed a Web site, which it called www.drivingworkforcechange.org. This site disseminates information about the initiative and is a resource on green jobs for employers, job seekers, and workforce development professionals. 3) The Michigan Workforce Development Agency purchased a one-year subscription to the Conference Board’s HWOL data. This LMI system provides administrators and staff (including staff in One-Stop Career Centers) with real-time data on job openings, including those in high-demand and emerging occupations. The data from the Help-Wanted OnLine 175 Table 7.1 State Labor Market Information Improvement—Consortium Awards (study sites in bold) Organization City State Additional consortium members Amount ($) Indiana Department of Workforce Development Indianapolis IN Michigan, Ohio 4,000,000 Louisiana Office of Occupational Information Services (OOIS), Research & Statistics Division Baton Rouge LA Mississippi 2,279,393 Maryland Department of Labor & Industry Baltimore MD District of Columbia, Virginia 4,000,000 Montana Department of Labor & Industry Helena MT Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota (opted out), South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming 3,877,949 Nevada Department of Employment Training and Rehabilitation Carson City NV Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Texas, Utah 3,753,000 Vermont Department of Labor Montpelier VT Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island 3,999,923 SOURCE: USDOL (2009). 176 Kaiser system was found to be extremely helpful and, as a result, the state workforce agency decided to continue its subscription with the Conference Board after American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding was exhausted. 4) The Michigan Workforce Development Agency held a green jobs conference (“Driving Workforce Change”) in Dearborn, Michigan, in May 2009. A total of 225 people attended this conference, including representatives of Michigan Works! agencies, academia, employers, and economic and workforce development officials. A focus of this conference was on the greening of the automotive industry. • New York...