Everyday, our men and women in the armed forces make sacrifices to protect this great country.  We owe them a debt of gratitude for their service.  We also have an obligation that when they return from duty and re-enter civilian life, that we as a nation, will assist them in making that transition easier. 

Part of this transition is obtaining a good job – one that pays them well and keeps them safe.  But for too many former service-members, finding a good job is still a challenge.  For some older veterans, these challenges are even greater.

Last year, President Obama signed the Veterans Opportunity to Work (VOW) to Hire Heroes Act of 2011.  Included in this critical legislation is a new initiative for older veterans who are not eligible for other Veterans Administration education benefit programs, called the Veterans Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP).   

Today, the Department of Labor and the Veterans Administration is proud to launch VRAP to help get unemployed veterans back to work. This program offers 12 months of training assistance to veterans who are 35 to 60 years old, unemployed and not eligible for other VA educational benefits.  The VA will provide $1,473 per month in financial support for eligible veterans and DOL will offer employment assistance to every veteran who participates or applies to VRAP.  If they put in the effort, we vow to help.

Under this program, eligible veterans will receive benefits to cover the costs of education and training courses offered by community colleges or technical schools, which lead to an associate degree or certificate in high-demand occupations like healthcare, technology and other fields.  Veterans will receive assistance at any one of the nearly 3,000 One-Stop Career Centers across the county, which are administered by DOL’s Employment and Training Administration. 

Today’s announcement with the Department of Labor and the Veterans Administration is a great example of interagency collaboration.  Together, we will prepare nearly 100,000 veterans for jobs in high demand industries.  That’s a great start – but our work will continue until every veteran that is looking for a job can find one.

Junior Ortiz is Deputy Assistant Secretary for Veterans’ Employment and Training.

Challenge.gov Logo

In my time at the Department of Labor, I’ve been impressed by the way our mission to protect workers has been energized and accelerated when we have opened up our process to the innovative ideas of the American public. We’ve already used the government’s public challenge platform – http://www.challenge.gov/ – to help us develop apps through the informACTION challenge and gather photographs that tell the story of worker safety and health. These collaborations were a great way for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to team up with some of the most visionary and passionate minds in the country on solutions that will ultimately save workers’ lives.

That’s why I’m grateful to be involved in the White House Office of Science and Technology announcement of Safety.Data.gov. This new website was launched today with the Department of Transportation as part of Transportation Safety Week.  Safety.Data.Gov provides citizens, industry representatives, advocates, researchers and entrepreneurs with tools to create innovative solutions that will enhance public safety in communities around the country. A series of other initiatives are also being released, spurring the entrepreneurial spirit of the American people to help better inform and protect our citizens.  

As part of this launch, Deputy Secretary of Labor Seth Harris this morning announced a new app challenge meant to provide workers, advocates and employers with a vital tool for safety. The Worker Safety and Health Challenge asks developers to utilize government data to create applications for several platforms that address one or both of the following categories: tools that demonstrate the importance of knowing about workplace safety and health and/or tools that help young people understand their rights in the workplace. You can get all the details at http://workersafetyhealth.challenge.gov/.

The grand prize “Safety in the Workplace Innovator Award” will grant $15,000 and a meet and greet with Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis to the developer of the app that best meets both of these categories. A “Safety and Health Data Award” and a “Workers Rights Award” of $6,000 each will be given for both individual categories, and a “People’s Choice Award” of $3,000 will go to  the developer of the app that has the most public votes on the site. Winners will be selected by a distinguished panel of judges, including Secretary Solis, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and a high-profile group of tech and safety experts (I’ll be on the panel, too).

At OSHA, we are always looking for better and more efficient ways to ensure all workers know about their lawful right to a safe and healthful workplace. The increasing use of technology by the federal government to open this process to the public’s talents and the indelible civic spirit across the country is one terrific way for us to find those solutions. I’m eager to see what the products look like this time, and I welcome everyone who chooses to participate. Together, we are engaged an effort to achieve no less vital a goal than saving the lives of young people.

Contestants must register for the contest at http://www.challenge.gov/ by creating an account between May 16, 2012, at 12:00 a.m. EDT, and September 16, 2012, at 11:59 p.m. EDT. Registrants will receive an email to verify their account and may then enter their submissions via the “Post a Submission” tab.

Dr. David Michaels is assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health.

Throughout time, parents have wished for their children a better life and richer opportunities than were afforded them. For me, these ideals remain unchanged.  

Sunday was my first Mother’s Day.  My daughter is only seven months old, but as I reflect on what Mother’s Day means to me, I am proud to say that my hopes and dreams for her are grounded in what I do as Acting Director of the Women’s Bureau.

At the Women’s Bureau, I work to make a difference in the lives of working women.  Our efforts focus on helping women achieve economic security.  We also want our nation’s daughters to know that the world is full of opportunity. My work will help ensure that my daughter will grow up in a world where women have the same opportunities and access as men – to gain profitable employment, to earn fair wages, and to know they can raise a family and still excel in their career.

We live in a world where the options are endless, where progress and innovation is limited only by the imaginations of its people.  Despite increased educational achievement and enormous strides in science and technology by women, there remain many good jobs where women and girls have limited access and participation.    

At the Women’s Bureau we are working to break down barriers and arm women with the tools and resources they need to excel in higher paying jobs of the future.  One example is our green jobs guide which can help women and girls identify new employment opportunities in fields that can provide pathways into the middle class and beyond.  

As a mom, I want my daughter’s imagination to be her only limitation, and here at the Women’s Bureau, I work to make that possibility a reality.

To find out more about the Women’s Bureau, please visit our website at www.dol.gov/wb. 

Latifa Lyles is Acting Director of the Women’s Bureau.

Skills to Pay The Bills Twitter Chat

Join the Department of Labor (DOL) for a “Skills to Pay the Bills” Twitter Chat Thursday, May 17 at 3 pm EDT.

You’ll have the chance to ask career development professionals about the workforce readiness skills employers are looking for when making hiring decisions about first-time employees.  An official from the U.S. Department of Education will take part in the discussion, as well as special guests from the University of California, Berkeley and Manpower, Inc.

During the chat, DOL will discuss what young people and recent college grads need to know while preparing to enter the workforce. Below are some additional topics that we can cover via the hashtag #Skills2PayBills:

• Turn to the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (@USDOL) to learn about the key workforce readiness skills needed to successfully transition from school to adulthood and the world of work. ODEP recently released Skills to Pay the Bills: Mastering Soft Skills for Workplace Success, a dynamic and engaging curriculum focused on teaching youth, including youth with disabilities, the ‘Soft Skills’ they’ll need to learn, practice, and master to succeed in a 21^st century economy. Kathy Martinez, Assistant Secretary for Disability Employment Policy, will be on Twitter answering your questions about the curriculum and how all youth, including those with disabilities, can secure good jobs and thrive in our workforce.
• Tweet Under Secretary of Education Martha Kanter (@USMarthaKanter) to learn more about the President’s 2020 Goal to have “the best educated, most competitive workforce in the world by 2020.” As the Under Secretary, Dr. Kanter oversees policies, programs, and activities related to postsecondary education, adult and career-technical education, federal student aid, and the five White House Initiatives. She’ll join the conversation to answer your questions and discuss why providing every American with a quality education is both a moral obligation and an economic imperative.
• Ask University of California, Berkeley professor Paul Hippolitus (@PaulHippolitus) about his acclaimed “Professional Development and Disability” course. As the director of Berkeley’s Disabled Students’ Program, Professor Hippolitus has a unique perspective on the challenges facing students with disabilities leaving school to enter the workforce, and the vital role self-confidence plays in this transition. You’ll have the chance to ask him about the key points of his course, and the role families, friends, and teachers play in helping all youth realize their value in the workplace.
• Chat with Priscilla Azcueta, (@ProjectAbility) Director of New Market Solutions for Manpower, Inc., a staffing agency who provides companies with inventive solutions to address the needs of a changing and dynamic workforce. Priscilla serves as a national lead of Project Ability—a partnership that relies on collaboration with community-based organizations and vocational rehabilitation to provide workforce solutions and talent to employers. You can ask Priscilla about what employers are looking for in job candidates in the current market.

Eager to get the conversation started? You can tweet us now using the hashtag #Skills2PayBills. Beginning at 3pm EDT on May 17, we’ll be live to answer questions submitted both before and during the event.

We look forward to tweeting you!

Isaura de Jesús Maradiaga was trained under an ILAB project to helps women and others in her community exercise their labor rights.

Being a 61-year-old mother of eight is tough enough, but, somehow Isaura de Jesús Maradiaga also manages to be a labor rights leader in her Honduras community. She trained with the Labor Department-funded Everybody Works project in the town of  Choluteca.  To get there, Isaura embarked on a long journey, week after week.  She walked ten kilometers, crossed a stream, reached the nearest passable road, and caught a bus to the town.  Now, as a labor promoter, she continues to walk to neighboring communities to train others. She does this in addition to volunteering her time as a leader in her local church, water committee and village government. Since she did not finish her primary education until well into her fifties, she is especially passionate about sharing the knowledge she acquired during Everybody Works with younger generations.

Undeterred by the ten kilometer walk or streams in her path, Isaura works to promote understanding of worker rights in Southern Honduras.

Everybody Works is a project under DOL’s Bureau of International Labor Affairs that operates 14 Worker Rights Centers throughout Central America and the Dominican Republic.  The project provides free, confidential legal consultations to workers, and if necessary, the project’s lawyers help workers file legal cases.  Workers aren’t the only ones who benefit.  Their governments can save limited time and resources because cases are prepared correctly with a clear problem identified.  Through education and legal representation, the project supports workers who might never have sought to defend their rights.

Women serve in all aspects of the project’s mission—as central staff, as country coordinators, and as lawyers providing services every day to workers.  That said, everyone on the team—man or woman—strives to empower workers in labor sectors with large female populations like domestic service and apparel production.  These sectors tend to have some of the most vulnerable workers. 

Isaura is one of many women in Central America and the Dominican Republic who have taken on the role of labor promoters in their communities.

To make the project sustainable and ensure local involvement, Everybody Works trains local labor promoters – like Isaura – who learn labor laws and processes to help other workers in their communities.   Some, like Isaura, serve as leaders later in life.  Other labor promoters get involved when they are young, just the kind of empowerment Isaura is so passionate about.  Several labor promoters have even decided to go to law school and dedicate their lives to supporting workers. 

This mom knows that it is never too early to train on labor rights.

While they are active, projects like Everybody Works provide an enormous support to workers.  Once these projects end, however, strong women like Isaura make the project’s impact sustainable.  These community leaders support and empower other workers and future generations to get what they deserve for the work that they have done. This Mother’s Day, ILAB salutes all the mothers like Isaura who go above and beyond for their families and livelihoods of others in their communities.

For more information on the Everybody Works project, visit: http://www.dol.gov/ilab/projects/americas/Central_America_Worker_Rights_Centers.pdf.

The following is a cross-post of a blog that first appeared on the White House Blog:

On Thursday, May 10 at 1:00 p.m. EDT Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis will host a Google+ Hangout to talk about the Obama Administration’s Summer Jobs+ initiative. Summer Jobs+ is a call to action for businesses, non-profits, and government to work together to provide pathways to employment for  youth in the summer of 2012. To date, companies, non-profits and governments have committed to creating nearly 300,000 summer jobs, mentorships and other employment opportunities for young people this summer.

And last week, we launched the Summer Jobs+ Bank, a single-stop resource for young people looking for jobs, internships, mentorship programs and other opportunities this summer. Just enter your city and state in the search widget on the left to get started. Or check out some of these cool Summer Jobs+ apps to access this information via Facebook, your web browser or your smart phone.

Have questions about how to find a job this summer? Want to know more about what the Obama Administration is doing to help young people connect to employment opportunities? Here’s how you can get involved:

• Starting now, you can ask questions on the White House Google+ page
• Ask questions in advance on the White House facebook page or on Twitter with #WHChat
• Watch live at 1:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday May 10, 2012 on WhiteHouse.gov/live, YouTube.com/whitehouse or the White House Google+ page.
• For upcoming White House Hangouts and more chances to engage, follow the White House on Google+. We hope you’ll join us!

Addie Wyatt

During a visit to Chicago today, I spoke to a familiar crowd at the United Food and Commercial Workers Legislative Conference. I’ll never forget when I stood on the picket line with UFCW members during a supermarket lockout. For five long months, we united our collective voices to demand fair wages and affordable health care.

I have a long history partnering with UFCW in the fight for workplace justice. So, I was honored today to remember a UFCW leader who spent her lifetime fighting for all working people—the great Addie Wyatt.

Ms. Wyatt was a trailblazer, a reverend and an American icon. She believed that dignity and respect belonged to everyone—no matter where you came from or what job you worked. From humble means, she worked as a meat-packer in Chicago for many years and rose to the highest ranks of the American labor movement.

Ms. Wyatt was also an ordained minister who built bridges of understanding. And as a woman of great faith, she had great faith in the American worker.

U.S. Department of Labor Hall of Honor

She stood up for workplace justice, and she worked tirelessly to integrate the labor movement. Early in her career, she worked with Dr. Martin Luther King on the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Later in her career, she counseled a young community organizer named Barack Obama as he came up the ranks in the Windy City.

She was the first African-American woman to lead a local labor union and later became the first African-American woman to lead an international union—as an international vice president of the UFCW.

Today, she becomes the first African-American woman to be given the Department of Labor’s highest honor—an induction into the Labor Hall of Honor.

Ms. Wyatt was a true champion for all working people and she leaves behind a remarkable legacy of compassion and positive change. I’m so proud that Addie Wyatt is now listed in the Hall of Honor where she so clearly belongs.

No matter how one measures it, the unemployment rate has been steadily falling. In fact, since August of last year, the headline unemployment rate has dropped by one percentage point from 9.1% to 8.1%, and we know that about 70% of that drop is due to people finding work and not due to people leaving the labor force.

Some have asked why the unemployment rate does not include people leaving the labor force or people who may be under-employed. Our current definition of unemployed has been used since 1940 and it has stood the test of time as one of our most reliable measures of the state of the labor market. This is also the standard definition of unemployment used by statistical agencies around the globe. Under this definition, an unemployed person is someone without a job and who was looking for work during the past four weeks.[1]

Moreover, every month since 1976, the Bureau of Labor Statistics employment report includes additional measures of unemployment. For example, one measure includes workers who left the labor force but are not looking for work because they don’t think the can find work, the so-called marginally attached, discouraged workers. Yet, another measure includes other marginally attached workers who are not looking for work because they are either studying or taking care of family. An even broader measure, which is more of a measure of under-employment, includes part-time workers who would rather be full time, the so-called part-timers for economic reasons.[2] Looking at the chart below, we can see that no matter what measure one looks at, unemployment is falling.

What does this mean? It means that contrary to some reports, both the number of unemployed and the number of discouraged workers has been falling. There’s no denying that some job-seekers halted their search during the recession and have been slow to return to the labor force during the recovery. However, the drop in labor force participation started even prior to the last recession in 2000 and the vast majority of the drop in the labor force participation since can be explained by the retirements of the baby boomers not by recent developments in the labor market.

Our role here at the Department of Labor is to help all of those who want to work and to provide resources to encourage individuals to continue looking for work. Job search assistance and training provided through our one-stop centers are key to help people looking for work. More recently, the extension of unemployment insurance for the long-term unemployment introduced innovative initiatives to allow the use of unemployment benefits to set up new businesses and to get back to work.

The Unemployment Insurance (UI) system has served and continues to serve as a vital support system for families experiencing extended joblessness during the recession and current recovery.  Now with the economy showing signs of strong, stable growth, including 26 straight months of private sector job gains, the Obama Administration is continuing its efforts to turn the unemployment program into a reemployment program.

 Two months ago, the President signed the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012.  In addition to extending the payroll tax cut and federal unemployment insurance programs that are helping the economy lead to a stable recovery, the legislation also included major reforms to the UI system.  These reforms provide states with more flexibility to respond to changes in the economy, provide employers with tools to avoid layoffs, help the unemployed get back to work faster and expand opportunities for the unemployed to start their own businesses.

One of the primary reforms was a greater focus on initiatives that combine Reemployment Eligibility Assessments (REA) with Reemployment Services.  This initiative provides funds for states to better link the unemployed with the overall workforce system by bringing individuals receiving UI benefits into One-Stop Career Centers for personalized assessments and referrals to reemployment services.  The goal of this program is to provide unemployed workers who receive UI benefits with early access to specific strategies that can help get them back into the workforce faster.  The strategies include developing a reemployment plan, access to relevant labor market information and referrals to reemployment services and training, as well as assessing their on-going UI eligibility.

These programs are highly effective.  Recent studies of REA programs in Florida, Minnesota, Idaho, Illinois, Nevada and North Dakota show that in most cases, participating in a REA program led to shorter durations of joblessness.  These studies were conducted in 2009 and were particularly informative because they looked at the programs during a time when the national economy was experiencing weak demand.  Even in those difficult circumstances, the research has found these programs are cost-effective for states as they save money to their unemployment insurance system. 

A follow up study was commissioned to take a closer look at the Nevada model which more closely integrates the delivery of reemployment services with the eligibility assessments.  The study found that by linking REAs to reemployment programs directly (in this case, the same Nevada staff conducted both programs),  Nevada was even more effective than other states at getting the unemployed back to work faster and it also increased earnings for those participating in the program.  At the same time, Nevada’s program was very effective at reducing costs to the state UI program.  Nevada saved four times as much money using the REA program than it cost to run the program, showing clearly the cost-effectiveness of this program. 

By conducting personalized reemployment assessments for UI claimants, states have reduced the time a person stays on UI, helped them connect to their next job more quickly, decreased the rate of improper payments made to ineligible claimants, and increased savings for state UI trust funds, saving states and employers a substantial amount of money. 

The Obama Administration continues to look at every opportunity to create a more effective and efficient workforce system.  The REA initiative is one step in this process.  Expanding this program to more states and more UI-eligible claimants will ensure that the unemployed get back to work more quickly and that the Unemployment Insurance system remains strong into the future.

Jane Oates is the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training.

Our nation’s labor market added 130,000 private sector jobs in the month of April, while the unemployment rate fell to 8.1 percent, its lowest level in three years.

Employment in Major Industries Since the Employment Trough, April 2010 - April 2012. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics Program.

Over the last four months, we’ve added an average of 207,000 private sector jobs. Significantly, the labor market added 53,000 more private sector jobs in February and March than previously had been reported.

For 26 straight months, we have added private sector jobs. The national unemployment rate has fallen a full point in the last eight months. Layoffs are continuing to come down and are now back to 2006 levels.

In April, our largest gains — 62,000 new jobs — were in good-paying business and professional services careers, meaning more architects, engineers, computer programmers and consultants are finding jobs. Also, we added another 19,000 manufacturing jobs in April. After losing millions of good manufacturing jobs in the years before and during the deep recession, the economy has added 485,000 manufacturing jobs in the past 26 months.

We’ve now created more than 4.2 million private sector jobs under this administration. We are seeing a resilient U.S. labor market continuing to recover from the deepest recession since the Great Depression. But there are still too many unemployed workers who still need assistance to get retrained to get back to work.

Monthly Change in Total Private Employment, February 2008 to April 2012. Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics Program

We’re on the right path, and we know our recovery would be even stronger if Congress hadn’t blocked almost every single proposed investment in the American Jobs Act. The president believes we should be doing more to help state and local governments hire back teachers, policemen, firefighters and construction crews. And he believes we should be doing more to cut taxes on small businesses that are the engine of economic growth.

Going forward, we have a choice to make. We can either make investments in things like education, transportation and new sources of energy — investments that have always been essential to America’s businesses and to creating good middle class jobs. Or we give more tax breaks to wealthy Americans who don’t need them and didn’t ask for them.

Prosperity has never just trickled down from a wealthy few. Prosperity has always grown from the heart of a strong middle class. That’s why the president laid out a blueprint for an economy that’s built to last, based on investments that put America in control of its energy future, improve education and skills for our workers, and support small business and American manufacturing, so we can make more things the world buys.