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Creating Jobs for the 21st Century Economy
- Since July 2003, Kentucky's unemployment rate has fallen from
6.6 percent to 4.6 percent.
- Since July 2003, 24,500 jobs have been created in Kentucky.
- Since August 2003, more than 1.9 million jobs have been created nationwide.
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Preparing Workers for Careers in the 21st Century Workforce
- Job Training and Dislocated Worker Funds: Since
2001, Kentucky has received over $1.1 billion in funds
from the Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration
to provide skills training and career development assistance to
dislocated workers and other participants.
- High Growth Job Training Initiative: The
President's High Growth Job Training Initiative is a strategic effort
to more closely tie federal training programs to job opportunities
in America's fastest growing industries such as health care, biotechnology,
construction, advanced manufacturing and others. By fostering collaboration
between employers, educators and the public workforce system, the
Initiative will help workers find and prepare for good jobs while
also providing a model for transforming the nation's entire public
workforce system.
- Kentucky is participating in $3,176,000 worth of
grants to help train workers for jobs in the health care
industry.
- One Stop Career Centers: One
Stop Career Centers are the focal point of America's workforce investment
system, supporting the employment needs of job seekers and the human
resource needs of business. At One Stop Centers, workers, job seekers, and other participants can receive training and education, build their skills, and access federal assistance programs, while employers use One Stop Centers to help recruit workers they need for their businesses.
For a list of One Stop Career Centers in Kentucky, click on the link
below:
Kentucky
One Stop Centers
- Job Corps: Job Corps is the nation's largest federally funded job training and education program for economically disadvantaged youth ages 16
through 24. Established in 1964, Job Corps has trained and educated
more than 2 million young people to date, serving more than 70,000
young adults each year. Besides vocational training, Job Corps provides
academic and life skills training including the opportunity for students
to earn a High School Diploma or GED. Approximately 90 percent of
Job Corps graduates go on to careers in the private sector, enlist
in the military or move on to higher education or advanced training
programs.
For a list of Job Corps Centers in Kentucky, click on the link below:
Kentucky
Job Corps Centers
Protecting Workers on the Job
- The most recent data shows that since 2001, worker fatalities have fallen by 6 percent nationwide.
- Over
the past four years, the Mine Safety and Health Administration
has awarded more than $2,000,000 to provide safety training for
Kentucky's miners.
- In 2003, mining fatalities across the country fell to the lowest level since 1910.
- In 2004, Kentucky was awarded
$1 million to create digitized mine maps, to avoid accidents like
the Quecreek mine in Pennsylvania.
Protecting Workers' Wages
- Since 2001, the Department of Labor has collected more than a half
a billion dollars in back wages including overtime for
workers across the nation.
- The Department of Labor has reformed 50 year old overtime regulations and introduced new overtime security rules that will provide more overtime protection to more workers than under current law. The reforms guarantee overtime protection for workers making less than $23,660, a nearly threefold increase over the old rules, and guarantee overtime protection to hourly workers, blue collar workers and first responders.
Protecting Worker Benefits
- Since 2001, the Department of Labor has secured more than $3 billion
for the retirement, health and benefit plans that cover 150 million
Americans.
- The Department of Labor has
reformed the financial reporting requirements for unions so that
rank and file union members will have access to more accurate
and complete information about how their dues money is spent. These
reforms will help union members police their own unions and prevent
problems before they start.
- Fulfilling its role in the Energy Employee Occupational Illness
Compensation program, the Department has awarded more than $115
million to Kentuckians who developed cancer and other covered diseases while working on nuclear weapons and related projects for the United States. Payments have gone to former employees at the Department of Energy, its contractors or subcontractors, or to their survivors.
Protecting the Jobs of America's Veterans
- Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Department of Labor
has protected the jobs of America's veterans by providing briefings,
presentations, and technical assistance on the Uniformed Services
Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) to more than 170,000
people nationwide. This includes veterans, reservists and employers.
Since 2001, the Department has completed investigations of 99 USERRA
complaints on behalf of protected service members and veterans in
Kentucky.
Serving Hispanic Workers
- The Department of Labor's Hispanic Worker Initiative
is focused on helping Hispanic Americans take advantage of job opportunities
in high growth sectors of the economy. The Initiative is focusing
on three strategies:
- Helping Hispanic Americans develop language and occupational skills.
- Helping Hispanic youth stay on an educational path that leads to rewarding careers.
- Encouraging collaboration between employers, community colleges and the public workforce system to help Hispanic Americans build the skills required for jobs in growing industries.
- The Occupational Health and Safety Administration
has also mounted a significant effort to reach out to Spanish-speaking
workers and their employers, including printing health and safety
materials in Spanish, setting up a Spanish-language hotline, and
extensive community outreach, particularly in the construction industry.
- Since 2001, fatalities among Hispanic workers have fallen by 11.6 percent nationwide.
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