By Shannon Holmes
January 31, 2005

Mayor's workforce directors from cities across the country gathered in Washington (DC) for The United States Conference of Mayors Workforce Development Council (WDC) Annual Meeting held in conjunction with the 73rd Annual Winter Conference of Mayors. Jackie Edens, former Workforce Commissioner in Chicago and President of the WDC, welcomed Board of Trustees and council members from cities across the country including Akron, Baltimore, Boston, Chattanooga, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus (GA), Detroit, Denver, El Paso, Fort Wayne, Gary, Hammond (IN), Hartford (CT), Hawthorne (CA), Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City (MO), Las Vegas, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Louisville, Macon (GA), Nashville, New Haven, New York City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, Portland (OR), Providence, San Diego, San Francisco, Scranton (PA), Seattle, South Bend and St. Louis.

The primary issues addressed at the meeting were the Reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 and its impact on the workforce system. WDC members also discussed trends in cities, youth poverty and joined mayors at the Standing Committee on Workforce Development and the American Dream: Is It Working for American Families? workshop featuring author Jason DeParle.

The reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 has been the main focus of the WDC for almost two years. The Administration's original proposal in early 2003, would have taken away local control of the workforce system and put it under the control of governors. This proposal was not included in either version of WIA reauthorization bills passed in the 108th Congress. Despite the fact that bills passed both the House and Senate, a final bill was not able to be reconciled during the 108th Congress.

Under the leadership of Representative Howard "Buck" McKeon (CA), Chairman of the Subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness of the House Education and Workforce Committee, a new bill, HR 27 (The Job Training Improvement Act), was introduced on January 4, 2005. This bill is similar to the passed House bill, HR 1261, which included a strong role for local elected officials and their workforce investment boards (WIBs).

Congressional staff briefed WDC on what WIA reauthorization would look like in the coming year. Bill Kamela, Minority Staff Director for the Subcommittee on Employment, Safety and Training of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and Stephanie Milburn, Majority Professional Staff for the House Education and the Workforce Committee, both agreed that the bulk of the negotiations will take place during the conference process. Both the House and Senate intend to have this bill completed early, with Committee action expected by the Easter recess.

Milburn indicated that there were significant additions in HR 27, which include the Personal Re-employment Account pilots and/or demonstrations and a place holder for the Community-based Job Training grants program.

Kamela said that the intent in the Senate is again to have a bi-partisan bill move through the Senate. He also indicated that the same issues of concern in the 108th Congress will need to be addressed this year including changes to governance and administrative costs, as well as the House bill's consolidated block grant and faith-based hiring discrimination provision. Additional issues may be how the new H1-B skill grants and Community-based Job Training grants will play out due to nature of the current deficit. The Senate introduced its bill S.9, the Lifelong Education Opportunities Act of 2005, on January 24.

Milburn and Kamela thanked the Conference of Mayors, as well as the other members of the Local Coalition, for all of their assistance and input during the reauthorization process last year and request continued collaboration in the coming year.

The Local Coalition, which includes the Conference of Mayors, National Association of Counties, National Association of Workforce Boards and National Workforce Association, plans to once again work with House and Senate staff through the legislative process to ensure that the local governance structure and resources are maintained.

Dorothy Stoneman, President and Founder of YouthBuild USA and Robert Woodson, President and Founder of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, stressed how intervening in a young person's life early on can make a dramatic difference in the life they will lead and impact they will have on their community in the future.

Woodson stated that over the last forty years, there has been $9 trillion dollars invested in programs to serve the poor, but no real assessment to see if the programs actually work and are effective. The "bipolar" debate over how to solve the problem of helping the poor is only hurting the poor, he further stressed. Woodson talked about the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise which puts individuals from poor neighborhoods as mentors in the local schools to work with the youth in and out of school. Woodson said the program has been successful because it gets youth out of the cycle of violence that the poor neighborhoods are facing and at the same time helps the adults be a positive role model for the youth and in the community.

Stoneman noted that no one political party has come up with a plan to solve the issue of poverty in this country, and that throwing money at the problem does not solve it. With the current funding about 200,000 youth 16 to 24 are being served, while there are roughly 2.5 million 16 to 24 poor out of school youth in this country. In YouthBuild programs, unemployed and undereducated young people ages 16 to 24 work toward their GED or high school diploma while learning job skills by building affordable housing for homeless and low-income people. Strong emphasis is placed on leadership development, community service, and the creation of a positive mini-community of adults and youth committed to success.

Robert Atkinson, Director of the Technology and New Economy Project and Vice President of the Progressive Policy Institute, presented the trend of labor market bifurcation where jobs are moving away from middle level skills and wages and towards high skills and wages and low skills and wages. With fewer people in the middle level skills and wages, cities are having a harder time holding onto the middle income families and thus facing a larger income inequality than in suburbia.

Atkinson said that over the next ten to fifteen years there will be a huge growth in information technology, which will impact economies and labor markets all over the country because of off'shoring and automation. He further stated that 3.4 million service sector jobs will be exported by 2015, but high skilled jobs are also being exported in growing numbers. As opposed to the past shifts in the economy Atkinson said "I'm not so sure we'll transform and everything will be okay this time."

Bob Knight, Managing Director of the Arbor Education and Training responded to Atkinson and agreed that skills alone will not solve all issues. Knight said ways to address growing income gap are rethinking of the minimum wage and allowing unionization more broadly. He stated that industry sector workforce development initiatives across the country, which are key in addressing the rapid changes in the economy, are haphazard. He called for a more national comprehensive approach in order for sector initiatives to be successful. Knight stressed that overall the local workforce development system needs to increase its value added for creating solutions or the local workforce system will be come automated and One Stop Centers will become obsolete.

Over the course of the past several years data about the local workforce system has lagged behind the need for real time labor market information. Addressing WDC in a panel on the strategic use of data of the local workforce system were Mary Sue Vickers, Director of Labor Market Information Research at the National Association of State Workforce Agencies, John Dorrer, Director of the Division of Labor Market Information Services at the Maine Department of Labor, and Jeremy Wu, Program Manager at the U.S. Census Bureau. All three panel members stressed that there is labor market information out there to be accessed for immediate use and long term planning and presented the sources where labor market and other data could be retrieved.

Vickers provided an overview of what data is looked for and the importance of it, not only to the local workforce system, but for state and federal government as well. Dorrer specifically informed WDC members about the critical data information that workforce investment boards, mayors and elected officials need to make decisions on policies and economic development. Wu then demonstrated how the new Local Employment Dynamics (LED) System at the Census Bureau works to obtain either general or broad labor market information for a specific state or metropolitan area.

The members of the WDC joined mayors at the Standing Committee on Workforce Development chaired by Mayor Douglas P. Scott of Rockford (IL). Addressing the Standing Committee on Workforce Development was U.S. Department of Labor Assistant Secretary of the Employment and Training Administration Emily DeRocco.