<p style=”text-align: left;” align=”center”><em>Over 6 Million Fewer People Will be Job-Ready in Fiscal Year 2014 Under House Spending Plan</em></p>
<p style=”text-align: left;” align=”center”>Last Thursday, the severe and disproportionate impact of the House-passed budget resolution was made clear when Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-KY) released the House spending allocations for all twelve Fiscal Year (FY) 2014 appropriations bills. While some programs fared well, labor, education, and health programs face cuts of nearly twenty percent, a 26 percent decrease since FY 2010.</p>
<p>“Employment and job training programs have been slashed by over $1 billion over the past three years. Now, under the House allocations, job training providers will have to further scale back or eliminate critical services that help workers get necessary skills for good-paying jobs,” said Rachel Gragg, federal policy director for National Skills Coalition. “These on-going spending cuts are hurting America’s workers, businesses, and economy. Congress needs to adopt a balanced approach to deficit reduction and stop cutting funding for critical programs like job training.”</p>
<p>Under the House spending plan, funding levels for key employment and training programs will be nearly $2 billion below FY 2013 levels, resulting in 6 million fewer people having access to critical programs to get the skills they need for the jobs of today and the future. This includes funding for the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), Career and Technical Education (CTE), Adult Basic Education (ABE), Vocational Rehabilitation, and Wagner-Peyser Employment Services.</p>
<p><strong>Employment and job training providers across the country have already made significant cutbacks due to sequestration and other funding cuts since 2010:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li>At the Partnerships for a Skilled Workforce, Inc. in Massachusetts, as many as 1,500 people won’t be able to get the employment and training services they need even as need continues to rise. Already, so far over 15,400 people have sought services this year, an increase of more than 430 people over last year.</li>
<li>The Lane Workforce Partnership in Eugene, Oregon, will see a reduction of 11.5 percent in funding. While no one program will be eliminated, several will be reduced. For example, the number of people served by its highly successful on-the-job (OTJ) training program will be reduced by 25 percent next year.</li>
<li>The Mahoning and Columbiana Training Association (MCTA) covers Youngstown, Ohio. Over the past three years, they had a 30 percent funding cut (50 percent going further back). From July through September they will not be able to offer core services – including OTJ training and supportive services – to any new customers, only career counseling.</li>
</ul>
<p>These cuts come as 12 million Americans are looking for work and over three million jobs are going unfilled, often because employers can’t find workers with the right skills. Further cuts put these life-changing programs in jeopardy for the millions of workers that need them and the employers that rely on them. To grow our economy and get people back to work, Congress must invest in America’s workers, replace the sequester and find a balanced approach to deficit reduction that stops cutting these programs.</p>
