By Shannon Holmes
February 3, 2003

Brockton (MA) Mayor John T. Yunits, Chair of the newly formed Workforce Development Standing Committee, formerly the Jobs, Education, and Workforce Committee, opened the meeting stressing the importance of the workforce investment system in the current state of the economy and urged fellow mayors to become a voice for the local workforce system.

Representative John F. Tierney (MA) addressed the Standing Committee on Workforce Development. Tierney is on the subcommittee on 21st Century Competitiveness of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce. He stressed to the Standing Committee members and other mayors present the importance of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) reauthorization and the role that they as mayors need to take. "As mayors and local elected officials you are advocates on a national level for localities and need to be extremely vocal not only to all members of Congress, not only your own, but to the Administration as to your needs to make the system and WIA work and to let them know what is working." He also informed the Committee that with the FY '03 appropriations as proposed by the President there is a loss of $580 million to the WIA appropriations, which will affect 180,000 people not being able to get services that they need. The proposal for the FY '04 budget is predicted to follow a similar cut in funding.

Representative Tierney stated that during reauthorization the Democrats would look to extend flexibility to the local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) and states and try to cut out some of the existing bureaucracy to make the system more efficient in serving people. Furthermore, he emphasized the need to bridge the gap between programs. He said that One'stop Centers were the ideal place to do this because "people already go to these centers to seek services." He added that one way to help get people the training and education they need and back to work is to put more funding into child-care services. Representative Tierney specified that education and work need to be integrated, whether it is education first or simultaneously. "When the time comes that the economy turns, there is going be the need for a skilled workforce."

Also addressing the Standing Committee on Workforce Development was Paul Harrington, Associate Director of the Center for Labor Market Study at Northeastern University, with an overview of the state of the economy. In 2001, one percent of the United States population lost their jobs. In a year's time from December 2001 to December 2002, he informed the Committee, there had only been a decrease of 200,000 jobs. "Even though there has been Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, there has been no job growth." Mr. Harrington added that as a result of the recession, firms have stopped investing and consumers have stopped spending, thus there has been no change in the economy.

Unlike recessions of the past, this recession has been a white-collar one, targeting information and computer technology. The greatest impact and greatest risk has been on the 16-24 year olds, with a rate of 82 percent joblessness with just about half of that job loss in cities. Mr. Harrington stressed that early work experience and skills are important to the development of basic behavioral traits. "Learning how a job atmosphere works and developing career pathways in the adult labor force is vital to youth succeeding in the workforce and helps to decrease the dropout rate because the youth have a sense of connectedness." He added that over the past 12 — 14 years there has been no progress with dropout rates across the country and that dropout rates have been underestimated for years. By 2010 the youth population will rise by 12 percent and the dropout rate is expected to rise simultaneously. "Educating and training the youth population will make them productive members of the workforce. After all, they are the future of the workforce."

Mr. Harrington concluded by informing the Standing Committee that in order to deal with the recession and the economy three things were needed: a strong economy for an effective workforce, a strong stimulus package to help revive the economy, and a way to tackle the youth issue in the workforce to stop the vicious cycle of dropouts and no jobs.

Former President of the Workforce Development Council Conny Doty, Director of Jobs and Community Services in Boston, informed the mayors of the upcoming reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act this coming year and the importance of local control in this Act. "National unemployment is at a ten year high of six percent and funding needs to be put into the system to help address this important issue facing not only our system, but your city and the entire country. We need your help to make this happen."

Lawrence Fitch, President of the Workforce Development Council and President and CEO of the San Diego Workforce Partnership, Inc. informed the Standing Committee about rumors of the Administration's proposals for the reauthorization of WIA and the position that The United States Conference of Mayors Workforce Development Council believes that the Conference should take on reauthorization.

Rumors about Administration's proposals:

• The elimination of Mayors' role in WIA by terminating Chief Local Elected Official appointment authority for the local Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs).
• Significant reduction of local resources by moving 50 percent of WIA funding to states. Current law gives states 25 percent of WIA funding and 85 percent to locals.
• Decrease funding resources at the local level.
• Elimination of In'school Youth Programs.
• Elimination of the Youth Opportunity Program beginning in FY '04.
• Elimination of mandated Youth Councils.
• Reduction of overall youth employment funds by 23 percent.
• No Summer Jobs Program.

The mayors call for:

• Retaining strong local governance authority for mayors and their local WIBs.
• Retaining at least 85 percent of federal workforce funds at the local level.
• Increasing resources for laid-off workers to address their job training and placement needs.
• Retaining and expanding youth employment programs, both year-round and summer.