The Raleigh Report
from the office of Representative Marian McLawhorn
December 23, 2009

North Carolina’s unemployment rate decreased from 10.9 percent to 10.8 percent in November, according to the N.C. Employment Security Commission. This is a small increase, but it does reflect some improvement in the job market that I hope will continue into next year.

This bit of bright news comes at the end of a tumultuous financial year and can be attributed in part to the federal recovery effort’s programs to stimulate automobile and home purchases, among many others. In North Carolina, money from the Workforce Investment Act and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has helped create or retain about 28,000 jobs to date and those numbers are expected to increase in the months ahead.

The information below from the North Carolina Office of Economic Recovery and Investment highlights some of the way this money from the federal government is being used. (All numbers have been rounded off.) Thank you as always for your support and your interest in our state.

Overview

_The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) can best be divided into three major funding categories: adult, youth and dislocated workers. WIA and American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds were awarded by the federal Department of Labor.

_Approximately $79.8 million was made available to North Carolina in March 2009. Of this amount, $56.8 million was distributed to the state’s 24 workforce development boards. Within each funding stream, the dollars were budgeted as follows:

• $ 8.8 million – Training and related services to adult citizens
• $21.3 million – Services to disadvantaged youth delivered through a federally mandated Summer Youth Employment Program. This new program is a requirement of ARRA. More than 6,000 youth are currently enrolled in work and job readiness activities around the state.
• $26.6 million – Employment, training, and support services to dislocated workers

Programs in Progress

_Recovery money that is not required to be distributed to local boards is held by the state to support strategic investments that build North Carolina’s workforce delivery system for youth, adults and dislocated workers. Two projects were approved by the Office of Economic Recovery and Investment and are in progress:

A. To support our community colleges’ mission to train and retrain our state’s workforce, the Department of Workforce Development partnered with the Community College system to plan and implement the Governor’s JobsNOW 12 in 6 Initiative. With an investment of $13.4 million, local community colleges, in partnership with local Workforce Development Boards, are creating short-term training programs for targeted occupations. The 12 in 6 Program is a workforce development initiative designed to benefit North Carolinians who have lost their jobs due to recent layoffs and plant closures or other job seekers.  The initiative will create community college programs in 12 careers, each requiring less than six months to complete (Areas of study are: Nursing Assistant, Carpentry,  Phlebotomy, Welding,  Hospital Billing/Coding, Food Service, Office/Clerical Support, Auto Body Repair, Masonry/Tile Cutting, Manufacturing/Materials, Plumbing, and HVAC/Industrial Maintenance). This short-term training, coupled with work readiness assessment and coaching, will provide more people with the skills for good jobs and a career pathway for continued growth. The initiative started in September 2009.

B.  Because of the potential for substantial worker layoffs in the banking/financial services industry in the Charlotte region, Governor Perdue tasked workforce development partners with developing a proactive plan to assist workers impacted by layoffs and to assist the communities and existing businesses in the region to remain viable and competitive. The outcome of the planning was the Charlotte Workforce Recovery Project. $803,592 in ARRA/WIA funds has been disbursed to support the components of this plan. These components include entrepreneurship training, expanded service access in faith based/community based and public settings, conversion of curriculums at UNC-Charlotte to short-term offerings, the implementation of a job retention initiative to help small- and medium-size companies remain competitive, and the hiring of a project coordinator. A class of 32 has already completed the initial entrepreneurship training. The project coordinator has been hired and is actively working to align the work activities. The job retention project, a partnership between the Department of Commerce and Small Business and Technology Development Center is at the beginning implementation stage.

Programs in Development

_The Office of Economic Recovery and Investment has allotted $5.2 million to support the implementation of six projects that reflect statewide priorities and federal expectations. Still in the developmental stage, these projects are:

• _Outreach Project to Unemployed Adults and Dislocated Workers: Work in this project will be carried out by the NC Agency for Public Telecommunications Office and a service provider yet to be determined. $990,000.
• _BRAC i3D Project: This project is an expansion of the workforce and economic development efforts by the BRAC Regional Task in response to the military base realignment in the region surrounding Fort Bragg. $800,000.
• _Veterans Initiative: This project also supports a military area to be impacted by base realignments. It will support the training and retraining needs in the area surrounding Camp Lejeune and the Marine Corp Air Station at Cherry Point. Veterans and military spouses will be targeted for training and retraining in service industries. This project is a partnership between the Military Growth Task Force and the Eastern North Carolina Workforce Development Board. $900,000.
• _Prisoner Reentry Project: The state Department of Corrections will expand its Prisoner Reentry Project, which currently serves only four counties. Funding will allow this project to provide workforce development and related transition assistance to offenders in 10 additional counties. $1 million.
• _Workforce Development at Youth Development Centers: The Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention will implement an education and employment project within the eight Youth Development Centers that it operates around the state. The project will integrate workforce training into the range of rehabilitative services provided to youth. $950,000.
• _Rural Community Mobilization Project: The NC Rural Economic Development Center provide grants to local rural partnerships along with technical assistance to establish public and non-profit partnerships to address job loss and assistance needed by the unemployed and underemployed. $700,000.

Summary

_Of the $79.8 million in federal recovery money awarded to North Carolina, $77.8 million had been encumbered as of July 31. Discussions are taking place about how to use the remaining $2 million. The Department of Workforce Development is pulling partners together to pursue two competitive grants through the U.S. Department of Labor. One program provides assistance for employment and training in the green industry. The other would help provide labor market information about the energy industry.

For the most up to date information on ARRA participation, go to www.ncwia.com and click on ARRA summaries. For more information about the NC Office of Economic Recovery and Investment and how stimulus money is being spent in North Carolina, go to www.ncrecovery.gov.

Notes

_ The performance of North Carolina’s students on national standardized tests continues to improve. The state’s average SAT score this year is 1,006, 10 points away from the national average. North Carolina has the second largest 10-year gain (18 points) in mathematics among the 22 states with more than half of their students taking the SAT. Also, our fourth and eighth graders again outperformed the nation in mathematics in 2009, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress results recently released by the U.S. Department of Education.

_Zenta Mortgage Services will expand its presence in Charlotte, creating 1,002 jobs over the next five years and investing $2.19 million. The announcement was made possible in part by a state Job Development Investment Grant (JDIG). Job Development Investment Grants are awarded only to new and expanding businesses and industrial projects whose benefits exceed the costs to the state and which would not be undertaken in North Carolina without the grant.  Since the first grant was awarded in 2003, the program has been responsible for creating commitments for more than 30,000 jobs and $5 billion in investment in North Carolina.