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November 18, 2009
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - About 600 recently laid-off West Virginia workers are unable to receive job training because the money has run out, the head of the state's labor development program told lawmakers Tuesday.
The situation is such that Russell Fry, the acting executive director of WorkForce West Virginia, is going to ask the federal government for a loan to get through the budget year.
In appearance before a legislative panel on economic development, Fry also suggested the state look into creating a Promise Scholarship-type program for unemployed adults.
WorkForce's job training program is entirely federally funded, Fry said. The $11 million the agency received this year was calculated using figures from the previous year.
Because the state's unemployment rate has doubled from this time last year, the money WorkForce receives is not enough to cover the higher demand for job training.
The need for money comes from three of WorkForce's seven regional offices. The three regions contain many of the counties hardest hit by layoffs, including 17 counties with an unemployment rate of 10 percent or higher. The statewide unemployment rate is 8.1 percent.
In those counties, 200 people are on a waiting list to receive training and another 400 have expressed interest in receiving training.
Fry said these people, who have been laid off in the last two years, would be trained for jobs in fields that are hiring, including health sciences.
"I think there's twice as much interest now as I have money to pay," he said.
Sen. Brooks McCabe, D-Kanawha, co-chair of the legislative panel, said the state's "inability to service them right now is a major travesty."
Part of the problem, Fry said, is the way the federal government gives out the money. It divides it among the seven regions in the state. Three regions have exhausted their funding while the other four still have money.
But there isn't an easy way for Fry to move the money from where it isn't being used to where it's needed. He asked for a federal waiver to do so, but it was denied.
"We've got major unemployment concerns, and to have this money not be used effectively is a major issue," McCabe said.
The three regions that have run out of money include a region made up of Northern Panhandle counties, a region in the northwest part of the state around Wood and Jackson counties, and a region in the southeastern part of the state that stretches from Webster in the north to McDowell in the south.
In an emergency telephone meeting Fry planned for today, he will ask regional directors from the other four regions for any money they have left from the last year budget year.
By "dis-obligating" the money, he hopes to put it into a pool for use by any region in the state that needs it. He told lawmakers these regions had "a lot of money," but he later said he isn't sure how much. Plus, the regions might need it themselves to get through the year.
"Even if we get through what we have, it's only a matter of time before we'll need more money," Fry said.
He said he would ask the federal government for an emergency infusion of job training money. Fry also plans to put a half million dollars he has for statewide spending into the pool that regions with waiting lists can draw from.
"I think the $500,000 is, like, 'Let's buy some time,' " Fry said.
Fry said the state, rather than just the federal government, may need to think about putting money toward job retraining, possibly in the form of a new Promise Scholarship-style grant that he suggested could apply to dislocated workers.
"If I had 100 Promise scholarships right now, I'd have 100 people off the list," he said.
Fry also said public school guidance counselors need to do a better job of talking with students about community and vocational colleges.
In a recommendation to Gov. Joe Manchin from the WorkForce Investment Council, which oversees Fry's program, the council said, "We must work more closely with schools to convince guidance counselors to investigate other career avenues for students rather than just the higher education path and to offer other viable options" such as two-year degrees and vocational programs.
Fry said the council doesn't believe counselors are encouraging students to think about two-year degrees.
"Our guidance counselors are mostly four-year degree folks, or master's degree folks," Fry said.
The council also suggests the state do a better job marketing the different career paths in the state and the value of training and education. It recommends that training for jobs should be coordinated with the needs of businesses.
"We have to make sure we work with businesses and are marketing for jobs that exist rather than training for jobs that don't exist," Fry said.
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