Bronwyn Mauldin of Workforce Developments points us to a NYT article on the "success" of WIA retraining programs. From the article:
. . . a little-noticed study the Labor Department released several months ago found that the benefits of the biggest federal job training program were “small or nonexistent” for laid-off workers. It showed little difference in earnings and the chances of being rehired between laid-off people who had been retrained and those who had not.
In interviews, the authors of the study and other economists cited several reasons that retraining might not be effective. Many workers who have lost their jobs are older and had spent their lives working in one industry. In need of a job right away, many pick relatively short training programs, which often have marginal benefits. Job retraining is also ineffective without job creation, a point made by several economists who have long cautioned against placing too much stock in it. Finally, workers trying to pick a new field cannot predict the future of the labor market, especially in a time of economic upheaval.
“I can’t tell you with any degree of certainty, and I’ve been doing it for 20 years, what the hot jobs are going to be,” said one of the authors, Kenneth R. Troske, an economics professor at the University of Kentucky.
An examination by The New York Times of one group of laid-off workers — 36 people who finished their retraining at Macomb Community College just outside Detroit at about the same time as Mr. Hutchins, from May to August 2008 — found that at least 60 percent appeared either not to be working or to be in jobs unrelated to their training.
Of course, as Bronwyn points out, without the jobs, retraining isn't going to take us anywhere. She says:
Job training can't work without job creation. And it can't just be any jobs, but jobs that replace earnings in a meaningful way. This study and the light being shone on it by the NYT is an opportunity for us to ask some important questions:
- We're doing what we can to train people for new careers, but are the jobs out there?
- Whose responsibility is to to create those jobs?
- Do those jobs pay enough in earnings and benefits to live on? To support a family?
- If they don't, should we train people for those jobs?
ARRA (aka Obama's stimulus plan) is designed to begin to create new jobs and save the ones we have, but it's a short-term measure. What long-term policies and investments are needed to create good jobs that will last?
What do you think? How can the workforce development system respond in a market where economic development isn't creating the jobs?
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