McClatchy News
February 2, 2010
From McClatchy News:
After a slow start, states struggling with record unemployment are scrambling to create and expand subsidized jobs programs that could employ thousands of poor adults, teens and even disabled people.
They’re running out of time, however, because nearly $4 billion in unspent stimulus money that would finance the efforts is set to expire on Sept. 30. As a result, many are pushing Congress to make the remaining funds available for another year.
Unless that happens, many states and local governments won’t have enough time to push new jobs programs through, and others will face cutbacks. In California, job programs in San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties already have imposed cutoff dates for new job placements because of the Sept. 30 deadline.
“That’s been a concern from the start,” said Amy Rynell, the director of the Chicago-based National Transitional Jobs Network. “States are worried about ramping up, getting an infrastructure in place to launch a program and then, essentially, having the rug pulled out from under them in September.”
Without the extension, some of the most hard-to-employ, job-needy Americans will miss out on valuable work experience.
“It would just be unfortunate if we had the ability to use these funds for subsidized jobs and we just ran out of time, mostly for reasons beyond the states’ control. To lose that opportunity would really be tragic,” said Sheri Steisel, federal affairs counsel for the National Conference of State Legislatures. She’s lobbying Congress to include the funding extension in a jobs bill being crafted in the Senate.
The subsidized employment program pays most of a worker’s salary with state or federal funds for a specified length of time. This makes the worker less expensive and more attractive to prospective employers. Maryland’s program, which now employs 87 people statewide, placed Baltimore residents Jessica Distance and Eugene Laster in jobs with the state human resources department through June 2011.
The idea is to provide much-needed income now and work experience that could help them land permanent jobs later.