Commentary: Cutting job-training dollars would hurt recovery

With the nation’s unemployment rate at 9 percent, the economy continues to be a top concern for Americans.

Job-training programs are helping unemployed Americans find work that allows them to support their families. Over the last year alone, more than 8 million people have benefited from job-training programs — more than half of them placed in new jobs.

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That’s why it’s so puzzling that some congressional leaders would put the very federal programs that are helping get people back to work on the cutting block. The budget proposal by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) includes some $60 billion in cuts to job-training programs. Among the programs in jeopardy are the 3,000 Workforce Investment Act one-stop centers and Career and Technical Education, which have helped 4.3 million people find new jobs just last year. Eliminating or cutting these programs threatens the ability of individuals to gain the skills needed for employment and will ultimately destabilize economic recovery as job seekers find themselves unable to secure employment.

The cuts would have a devastating effect on the Washington area. Since 2006, 13 percent of the District’s middle-skilled jobs, like construction and manufacturing, have eroded, and parts of the city are facing unemployment rates as high as 30 percent.

Since the economic downturn, D.C.-based Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) and many other local job-training programs have been working with an increasing number of displaced workers with job experience, but who lack specific skills. For instance, the federally funded Building Futures program, which trains men and women for the construction trades sector, including green jobs, helped 278 workers develop new skills and more than three in four of the workers found jobs paying an average of $12.30 an hour in the last two years.

Take Michelle Jones, for example. Despite an exhaustive search, the mother of two was struggling to find work to support her family. With the help of the D.C. Building Futures program, a collaboration among the Community Services Agency, Metro Washington Council, AFL-CIO, WOW and Covenant House, Jones was accepted for an electrical apprenticeship. Through Building Futures, Jones and four other women found jobs with IES-Commercial, a nationwide electrical contractor. Now, Jones has a steady job making the income she needs to support her family.

But programs like Building Futures, and the path to employment for countless D.C. residents like Michelle Jones, could be over if the proposed federal budget cuts go into effect.

While middle-skill jobs have decreased in the D.C. area the past few years, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that these jobs will grow in the near future. The bureau estimates that 45 percent of all job openings between 2004 and 2014 will be in middle-skill occupations — including plumbers, electricians, health care workers, legal assistants, machinists and police officers. The trouble is, many of the unemployed and under-employed District residents lack the literacy skills needed for these high-demand jobs. Training programs help many D.C. residents develop the skills they need to qualify for the jobs.

Cutting off these very programs is a short-sighted budget maneuver that will hurt recent economic growth and ultimately put less money in the hands of struggling families and the economy as a whole. Instead, Congress should do more to bolster these proven job-training programs that are helping people find well-paid work.

Joan Kuriansky is chairwoman of the D.C. Jobs Council and executive director of Wider Opportunities for Women.