Explanation:
The Recovery Act makes available funding for Employment Services Operations, excluding reemployment services, in the amount of $150,000,000. Funds will be distributed to states via existing Wagner-Peyser formula per TEGL No. 13-08 which identifies the specific amounts for each state. These funds are available for states to assist persons in One-Stop Career Centers to secure employment and workforce information by providing a variety of services, including job search assistance, skills assessment, and labor market information services to job seekers and to employers seeking qualified individuals to fill job openings. Per the Recovery Act, the funds are available for obligation by the states through September 30, 2010. All Wagner-Peyser Recovery Act funds must be expended by June 30, 2011.
Allowable Activities:
As outlined in section 7(a) of the Wagner-Peyser Act, 90 percent of the sums allotted under the Recovery Act may be used for a variety of employment services, including job search and placement services for job seekers, appropriate services for employers, and other services listed in section 7(a)(3)(A) through (F). Wagner-Peyser services include assessment of skill levels, abilities and aptitudes; career guidance when appropriate; job search workshops; and referral to employers. The services offered to employers, in addition to referral of job seekers to job openings, include matching job requirements with job seeker experience, skills and other attributes; helping with special recruitment needs; assisting employers analyze hard-to-fill job orders; assisting with job restructuring; and helping employers. States are expected to provide these services within their One-Stop Career Centers.
Other key services include: 1) a computerized career information system including access to State Job Bank resources and institutions and organizations that provide training; and 2) the development and distribution of state and local workforce information which allows job seekers, employers, and providers and planners of job training and economic development to obtain information about job opportunities, regional job vacancies, labor supply, labor market or workforce trends, and the market situation in particular industries.
Under section 7(b), 10 percent of the Wagner-Peyser funds allotted are reserved for use in other areas, including performance incentives for public employment service offices, services for groups with special needs, and the extra costs of exemplary models.
Veterans receive priority of service under Wagner-Peyser activities. In addition, under Wagner- Peyser Act section 7(b)(2), the workforce system may provide specialized service to groups with special needs, including individuals with disabilities, as well as groups such as Indians and Native Americans, migrant and seasonal farmworkers, ex-offenders, youth, and older workers.
Additionally, states have flexibility to use Wagner-Peyser funds to support support targeted services to individuals with disabilities, such as the disability navigator programs similar to those currently operated in many One-Stop Career Centers nationally, and to purchase assistive technology and other devices to support providing services to individuals with disabilities. This supports the goals outlined in Wagner-Peyser Act section 8(b), as DPNs and other technology support the promotion and development of employment opportunities of persons with disabilities and placement of such individuals into employment.
Reemployment Services:
The Recovery Act makes available funding for reemployment services (RES) in the amount of $250,000,000. These funds will be distributed to states using the Wagner-Peyser formula to supplement existing RES for UI claimants, and to support integrating Employment Service and UI information technology to identify and serve the needs of such claimants. Per the Recovery Act, the funds are available for obligation through September 30, 2010 and for expenditure through June 30, 2011.
These funds will be distributed to states using the Wagner-Peyser formula to supplement existing RES for UI claimants, and to support integrating Employment Service and UI information technology to identify and serve the needs of such claimants. Per the Recovery Act, the funds are available for obligation through September 30, 2010 and for expenditure through June 30, 2011. Find and share best practices through the online community of practice at www.reemploymentworks.workforce3one.org.
Allowable Activities:
RES funding provides job search and other employment-related assistance services to UI claimants. As was the case with prior RES grants in PY 2001 through PY 2005, these funds are to be used to provide RES to UI claimants through the One-Stop Career Centers, in addition to the regular Wagner-Peyser Act funded employment services, in order to accelerate their return to work. States are expected to provide reemployment services within the One-Stop Career Centers.
Under Wagner-Peyser Act section 7(a) through (c), allowable activities include job search and placement services to job seekers including counseling, testing, occupational and labor market information, assessment, and referral to employers, and appropriate recruitment services and special technical services for employers. Specifically, this may include:
- Services provided to UI claimants identified through the UI profiling system;
- In-person staff assisted services;
- Initial claimant reemployment assessments;
- Career guidance and group and individual counseling, including provision of materials, suggestions, or advice which are intended to assist the job seeker in making occupation or career decisions;
- Provision of labor market, occupational, and skills transferability information that clarifies claimants' reemployment opportunities and skills used in related or other industries;
- Referral to job banks, job portals, and job openings;
- Referral to employers and registered apprenticeship sponsors;
- Referral to training;
- Assessment, including interviews, testing, individual and group counseling, or employability planning; and
- Referral to training by WIA-funded or third party service providers.
States should also evaluate potential technological changes and updates that would improve their capacity to serve growing numbers of UI claimants, as Recovery Act funds may be used for information technology required to identify and serve the needs of UI claimants.
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