By Josie Hathway
June 23, 2003

Long Beach Mayor Beverly O'Neill, Acting Chair of the Workforce Development Standing Committee, led a crowd of mayors in examining workforce issues and adopting policy resolutions. O'Neill stressed the importance of elevating the skills gap as a national issue and called for second round of Mayors' Skills Summits to reflect the new 2000 Census data and record levels of unemployment. O'Neill said, "If we are going to have cities that are going to be successful, we must invest in education and workforce training." In 2001 and 2002, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) worked with the Conference of Mayors to sponsor regional Mayors' Skills Summits to address the growing mismatch between employer needs and workers' skills. "The Mayor's Skills Summits were critically important because they garnered and leveraged resources and attention to the skills gap issue," said O'Neill.

WIA Reauthorization

Mason Bishop, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of DOL's Employment and Training Administration, concurred with O'Neill. "Almost on a daily basis, we have employers both small and large, within state and multi'state employers that tell us they still cannot find the skilled help they need," said Bishop. Bishop said that this Administration has worked very hard to put the one'stop system in the center of trying to meet this challenge. The one stop system is part of the nation's public workforce development system governed by the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which is scheduled for reauthorization this year. Bishop said that the Administration's guiding principles in reauthorization are "greater flexibility and efficiency, a more demand and business driven system, and the strengthening and development of a truly comprehensive system."

When questioned by the Mayors as to whether the Administration plans to lessen authority of local elected officials in reauthorization, Bishop said that the Administration does not seek to change appointment authority of local elected officials for the Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs). Rumors were last year that the Administration would eliminate mayors' sole appointment authority, but this was not included in their published proposal. However, Bishop did say that the Administration is strongly advocating for a state block grant option, and eliminating local area designation for workforce investment areas. Under the proposed WIA state block grant, governors could have complete authority over local funds and the local delivery system.

Minneapolis Mayor R. T. Rybak called for increased services for in-school youth, particularly the ability to run a summer jobs program. Unless funded by state TANF dollars, the nation's summer jobs program has become severely limited in cities under WIA and a national program would be non-existant under the Administration's proposal. The Adminisntration's proposal eliminates services to in'school youth and would only allow for summer jobs under a proposed targeted Youth Challenge Grant funds, which would only be granted to a limited number of local communities.

The Administration's proposal reduces funding at the local level by giving half of a proposed consolidated block grant to the states. The consolidated block grant would include Adult, Dislocated Worker and Employment Services funding streams. On May 8, the House passed their version of WIA reauthorization, HR 1261, the Workforce Reinvestment and Adult Education Act of 2003. The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee hearing on WIA Reauthorization is on June 18. It is possible that the full HELP Committee will mark up a bill before August recess, which would leave September and October for a conference with the House to complete a final bill. For more information on HR 1261 and the Conference's position on WIA reauthorization, see usmayors.org

Skills Training

Andy Van Kleunen, Executive Director of The Workforce Alliance (TWA), a collection of local workforce development stakeholders who advocate for expanded federal investments in education and training, said, "For us to have a competitive workforce, we as a country should be spending more on investing in the skills of our workforce. We pretty much lag every other industrialized country in the world in terms of what we spend per capita on adult workers and worker training. We are spending 33 percent less on worker training out of the Department of Labor now than in the mid-1980's and that is certainly going in the wrong direction, when all of the businesses in your communities are looking for more skilled workers." TWA's major focus in WIA reauthorization is increasing spending on training and training more people. With significant cuts in workforce funding in the FY 03 appropriations and the FY 04 Budget Resolution, Van Kleunen urged mayors to continue to voice the need for investments in training in order to maintain some funding.

Similar Workforce Challenges in South Africa

As part of the 2nd International Conference of Mayors, The Executive Mayor of Nkangala District Municipality in South Africa, Simon Piet Dollman Skhosana, described workforce challenges in South Africa. "We are still hampered by unemployment, the skills gap, and somewhat stagnant job growth," he said. South Africa is setting up a specific program with dedicated funds for youth skills development. America's mayors are calling for the same kind of investment in America's youth.

Skhosana described job creation strategies, which are focused on alternative job markets including tourism and agriculture. "We have walked the walk toward the political emancipation of the masses of our people with zeal and immense confidence yet, we have not done enough to ensure their economic emancipation. We need to take strides and with vigour, to make our people, especially the rural poor, more self reliant in building their economy and thereby roll back the frontiers of poverty," he said. South Africa is focused on ensuring that core technological education is in place for all citizens and bridging the gap between high school education and the skills required in the job market. Skhosana said that the huge challenge is skills retention because of "brain drain" from more developed nations, which is at alarming proportions. He said, "As we set to develop our workforce and make them ready for the job market at the bottom, the top gets chopped off."

Resolutions

The Workforce Development Standing Committee unanimously passed several resolutions, which are summarized in this edition, including several relating to WIA reauthorization that call for strengthened authority for local elected officials and their workforce boards, increased funding for training, maintaining services for both in'school and out-of-school youth, including summer jobs, and addressing the youth unemployment and skills crisis.

Workforce Development Resolutions

Addressing the Youth Employment and Skills Crisis calls for: 1) a minimum of FY 02 funding levels for Workforce Investment Act (WIA) youth programs to address the needs of the growing youth population; 2) a jobs stimulus program for youth to address the unemployment and skills crisis among young adults especially those in high poverty neighborhoods and high school dropouts, and 3) WIA reauthorization to allow for services for both in and out-of'school youth, streamlined eligibility for youth services, and support for local workforce and school systems as equal partners in preparing youth for the workplace.

Reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act calls for any WIA reauthorization to include: strong local authority and flexibility of local elected officials and their Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs); no lessening of funding for local areas; maintain current law for local area designation; more timely distribution of federal discretionary dollars; improved capacity of mayors to address youth skills and the employment crisis, including summer jobs; a major investment in skills training; enhanced capacity to serve the business community; fully funded One'stop infrastructure and greater capacity to address career ladder needs for low-income workers in cities.

Strong Local Authority and Flexibility At the Core of the Workforce Development System calls for any WIA reauthorization to strengthen authority for local elected officials and their boards in order to respond to the demands of local economies, maintain the local workforce delivery system and oppose any efforts to take away local governance through expanded authority to states.

Enhance Business Services in the Workforce Investment System calls for any WIA reauthorization to include flexibility for local innovation in the design of business services and increased funding for local workforce system to meet needs of business community.

Common Performance Measures calls for the common performance measures developed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to apply to all job training programs across all Departments, not just the Department of Labor, address concerns about efficiency measure, give state and locals flexibility to address any required additional measures, regulatory relief if additional measures are required beyond current law and develop a measure for business services.

Funding for the Workforce Investment System calls for Congress to restore WIA funding to at least FY 02 pre-rescission funding levels for WIA adult, dislocated worker, youth formula and Youth Opportunity grants and to consider funds necessary and appropriate to ensure full employment to all citizens.

Expanding Opportunities for America's Youth in High Poverty Areas By Investing in Youth Opportunity Grants calls on Congress to restore it's commitment to youth in high poverty areas by ensuring a significant continued investment in Youth Opportunity Grants.

Extending Unemployment Benefits calls on Congress to ensure that temporary federal unemployment benefits continue until the labor market improves for a consistent period of months in the United States.