Smart State Spending is Critical With Federal Workforce Cuts Expected

President Donald Trump’s initial budget proposes a more than 20 percent budget cut to the United States Department of Labor (USDOL), which means federal workforce development dollars to states are at risk of disappearing. Although this is the beginning of the process, the president’s preliminary budget ideas make clear that cuts to the workforce development system are coming.

The proposed plan explicitly says the federal government wants to, “decrease Federal support for job training and employment service formula grants, shifting more responsibility for funding these services to States, localities, and employers.” In others words, the state will be responsible for picking up the slack and must do so in this year’s final budget due by April 1st.

The budget cuts are particularly bad news for the more than 300,000 16-to-24 year old young adults across New York state who are not in school and unemployed, and for the employers who are in need of a more skilled workforce to fill the skills gap they’re facing. This is especially true for today’s young adults beginning their working life in poverty and without access to opportunity as the economy continues to evolve further requiring more education, training, and credentials. Unfortunately, despite these realities, the state only spends about one percent of the Regional Economic Development Council (the state’s main economic development strategy) resources on workforce development. Most of the system that actually trains workers is federally funded through the Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act (through the U.S. Dept. of Labor), which is currently at risk under President Trump’s vision of the federal budget.

To be clear, this is a crisis: high young adult unemployment and poverty combined with a skills gap and fragile workforce development system demands immediate action. And resources are too precious to waste. 

That’s why we now turn to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the state Legislature not only to step up the level of state investment to train unskilled young adults and connect them to careers but to make sure – with increasingly limited resources – we are spending every dollar wisely.

One immediate opportunity for the state is to repurpose existing resources we know aren’t being fully utilized. Considering that the state’s single largest youth jobs investment isn’t really meeting the needs of employers, the state should repurpose $10 million of the $50 million authorized for the New York Youth Jobs Program to fund the Empire State Apprenticeship Program (ESAP). This program would offset the cost of training by providing resources to employers who hire disadvantaged young adults into an apprenticeship program.

Fortunately, apprenticeships enjoy widespread support. That’s because they are a time-tested model that includes a rigorous training curriculum, on-the-job learning and direct connection to a long-term career. In addition, young adult apprentice employees benefit because they earn as they learn. Under President Obama, apprenticeship programs were greatly expanded and President Trump is signaling his support for them in his preliminary budget plan. The Empire State Apprenticeship Program is a bipartisan idea with both Assembly and Senate majority co-sponsors, and is an immediate first step the state can take to ensure we are using limited workforce development dollars wisely. 

In order to build a truly competitive and relevant workforce system, we know that we need more than apprenticeships for disadvantaged young adults. Another opportunity the state can immediately lead on is to allow 10 million of the Empire State Development Fund to be used on employer-driven workforce development projects that train workers to meet the needs of businesses across the state – a proposal included in the Assembly Majority one-house budget proposal. This $175 million pot of money is currently dedicated to supporting capital projects intended to create jobs, reduce unemployment and increase economic activity. By allowing just under six percent of this fund to go toward worker training, the state could inject more resources to help employers access the trained workers they need.

With limited state workforce dollars and federal workforce funding on the chopping block, New York state needs to start using it’s resources more wisely. The state budget is due by April 1 and these proposals to retool existing resources to better meet the needs of employers and expand opportunity for young adults to access training must be included. The 15 percent of 16-to-24 year old New Yorkers who are unemployed can help fill the middle skills gap so they too can actively participate in the economy. However, they will only be able to do so if the state invests in their potential.

Harry Bronson is a Democratic New York state assemblyman representing parts of Monroe County. Kevin Stump is the northeast director for Young Invincibles, an advocacy and policy organization working on higher education, health, and jobs issues impacting 18-34 year olds.