The federal government pours hundreds of millions of dollars into California each year for job training and other workforce development services. A major conduit for that money is the California Workforce Investment Board (CWIB), which advises and assists in planning, coordinating and monitoring the provisions of California’s workforce development programs and services as set forth by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. The board is in the Labor and Workforce Development Agency. All members of the board are appointed by the governor and represent the many facets of workforce development.

2009-10 Annual Report (CWIB website) (pdf)

When President Bill Clinton signed into law the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, it marked the first major job training reform in 15 years. The law replaced the Job Training Partnership Act and other federal job training laws with new workforce investment systems.

The Act reformed the nation’s fragmented job training system that contained duplicative programs and did not serve either job seekers or employers well. It was an attempt to induce business to participate in the local delivery of workforce development services, integrating welfare, unemployment compensation, employment services and training into a system of public assistance. The principle vehicle for this was the Workforce Investment Boards; the California Workforce Investment Board is one of the Act’s vehicles.

Workforce Investment Boards are regional entities that exist in the United States, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of Peru and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Every community in the 50 states has a local Workforce Investment Board. For each board, a chief elected official appoints members to sit on the board. Appointed positions are unpaid and at least 50% of membership must come from private businesses. There are also designated seats for representatives from different sectors like labor unions, educational institutions, etc.

Multilevel Governance in U.S. Workforce Development: The Case of the Workforce Investment Act (by Ines Hartwig, American Institute for Contemporary German Studies) (pdf)

Workforce Investment Act (The Robert Wood Johnson foundation and Hablamos Juntos) (pdf)

The CWIB is responsible for assisting the governor in all functions outlined in the Workforce Investment Act of 1998. All members of the board are appointed by the governor and represent the many facets of workforce development—business, labor, public education, higher education, economic development, youth activities, employment and training, as well as the Legislature. The board’s strategic plan directs its work in providing guidance to the statewide workforce investment system.

The Workforce Investment Act dictates that the board offer essentially three types of services:

Core Services, which are available to adults 18 and older, include job search assistance, labor market information, an assessment of skills and needs, workshops, career assessments, follow-up employment services and information about job training.

Intensive Services, available to adults who have been unable to find work through core services, provide literacy activities, more comprehensive evaluations, counseling, case management and short-term prevocational help.

Training Services, the next step after Intensive Services have been tried, provide occupational skills training, adult education, job readiness training, on-the-job training, customized employer training and private sector training programs. 

Both the Core and Intensive services are aimed at getting people to work quickly and are designed to utilize the One-Step Career Centers. Training Services has a longer time frame.

The board engages state and local workforce, education and economic development partners to ensure its strategic plan through its special committees:

Green Collar Jobs Council

Special Committee on Issues and Policies

State Youth Vision Team

Health Workforce Development Council

The system is comprised of 49 Local Workforce Investment Areas, each with its own business-led Local Workforce Investment Board. These local boards work in concert with their local chief elected official oversee the delivery of workforce services relevant to their local residents and businesses. Local boards act as conveners, analysts, brokers, community voices and capacity builders.

In the area of policy development, the board develops a unified strategic planning process to coordinate various education, training and employment programs into an integrated system that supports economic development; develop protocols to ensure polices are developed with public input and discussion; and recommends to the governor polices for effective ongoing operation of the system.

In the area of supporting the system, the board promotes and shares innovative strategies; promotes linkages among education, workforce preparation and economic development on a state level; facilitates collaboration among local areas and partners in the system; facilitates coordination of the system on a state level; coordinates between the state and local youth councils and LWIA administrators; assists the Employment Development Department (EDD) in identifying potential needs for improved information about trends and labor markets; and consults with EDD to develop specifications for data and other information.

In the area of assessing performance, the board recommends to the governor state performance measures and negotiated performance levels. It also advocates for continues improvement of system statewide.

In the area of reporting, the board coordinates the development of the annual report for the Secretary of Labor and the state strategic plan for Title I of the Workforce Investment Act, both to be submitted to the governor. It also prepares the board’s report to the Legislature on the Green Collar Jobs Act and activities of the Green Collar Jobs Council.

About CWIB (CWIB website)

State Board Membership (CWIB website)

Administrative Committee (CWIB website)

Ninty-two percent of the CWIB’s $3.3 million budget comes from the federal government (Federal Trust Fund), and 8% comes from reimbursements. Salaries and operating expenses claim all of its budget.

But the big money being spent are federal dollars that flow mostly through the state Employment Development Department (EDD) to the local workforce investment boards overseen by the CWIB.

Federal Workforce Investment Act funds are distributed to the states by the U.S. Department of Labor using formulas that weigh unemployment rates and other demographic factors. California uses similar formulas for distributing the money to its 49 local boards.

The money comes through three different revenue streams targeted at, respectively, adults, youths and dislocated workers. Data provided by EDD to the Legislature does not include youth fund programs, which cater to low-income youth with barriers to employment (runaways, foster children, the homeless, etc.)

Of the 2008 federal appropriation (allocated over two years), California spent $125 million on adults. Sixty-three percent went to One-Stop Employment Services, 20% to Job Training and 17% to Administrative/Operating expenses.

Around $84 million was spent by local workforce boards on dislocated workers. Sixty-seven percent went to One-Stop Employment Services, 19% to Job Training and 14% to Administrative/Operating expenses.

The Workforce Investment Act: How Is the Federal Funding Being Spent? (California Senate Office of Research) (pdf)

3-Year Budget (pdf) 

“Green” Projects

In 2009, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger announced creation of the nation’s largest state-sponsored green-jobs training program. The Clean Energy Workforce Training Program leveraged a $75 million investment from federal, state and local resources, including the Green Collar Jobs Council, the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, the Energy Commission, the Employment Development Department and the Employment Training Panel.

The Green Collar Council was created in 2008 under the purview of the Workforce Investment Board.

The plan was to train more than 20,000 new or re-skilled clean energy workers to build a workforce capable of performing the jobs necessary to meet the state’s goals of renewable energy development, climate change reduction, clean transportation and green building construction for a new green economy.

Two years later, the record was spotty. Only half of the $186 million in federal stimulus funds awarded in 2009 for weatherizing drafty California homes was spent by August 2011 and, according to the state Department of Community Services and Development, only 535 jobs were created.

The state Economic Development Department reports that $59 million in state, federal and private money spent on green jobs training and apprenticeship has resulted in only 719 job placements. That works out to an $82,000 subsidy for each job.

Clean Energy Workforce Training Program Fact Sheet (CWIB website) (pdf)

“Gov. Schwarzenegger Announces Nation’s Largest State-Sponsored Green Jobs Training Program” (by Varerie Gotten, California Newswire)

Green Collar Jobs Council (CWIB website)

2010-11 Green Collar Jobs Council Annual Report (CWIB website) (pdf)

Number of Green Jobs Fails to Live Up to Promises (by Aaron Glantz, New York Times)

Sizing the Clean Economy: A National and Regional Green Jobs Assessment (by Mark Muro, Jonathan Rothwell and Devashree Saha, The Brookings Institution)

A New Brand

Surveys and research by the state Employment Development Department indicated that the 49 Local Workforce Investment Boards and the One-Stop Career Centers, through which the CWIB institutes its policies, are not recognized or promoted as a system of partners with a shared common goal. To maximize its impact on businesses and job seekers, the board has set out to establish an overarching brand and an outreach strategy.

A workgroup set up by the board selected a name and logo that links agencies and partners: California Career and Business Network. It also is developing a separate website that will serve as an entry point to the system and help connect customers with available services..

2010-11 Draft Annual Report (CWIB website) (pdf)

Job Training: Local vs. State Control

California receives tens of millions of federal dollars annually for its Local Workforce Investment Boards, but according to a recent study by the state Senate Office of Research only 25% was spent on job training. That didn’t sit well with state lawmakers who would like to see more money spent on workforce training and less on other types of services like job search and placement.

States have various approaches to how they spend the federal dollars. Some have a strong centralized approached that dictates to local boards how money is spent. Others, like California, have given local boards broad discretion.

But that changed in the Golden State in September 2011 when Governor Jerry Brown signed into law legislation that would require local workforce investment boards to spend a certain percentage of available federal funds for adults and dislocated workers on workforce training programs. The law also includes new reporting requirements that mean more paperwork at the local level.

The locals are not happy.

The Workforce Investment Act: How Is the Federal Funding Being Spent (California Senate Office of Research) (pdf)

Bill Text: CA Senate Bill 734 - 2011-2012 Regular Session (ELobbyist)

Leave It to the Locals

Opposition to more state control of the federal workforce funds is rooted in the belief that local officials know best what local needs are.

Los Angeles County Chief Executive Officer William T. Fujioka put it succinctly: “New State-imposed requirements are completely inconsistent with the intent of Federal law and regulations which is to provide for local flexibility over the use of mandatory pass-through WIA funds in meeting locally determined needs and priorities.”

As Fujoika pointed out, in L.A. County those priorities include a heavy emphasis on job search and placement assistance, career counseling and follow-up services to assist in job retention. More than 750,000 people use these services via 17 One-Stop Career Centers funded by the program.

He feared the unintended consequences of the new law. “The impact of this bill would result in the closure of some one-stop centers,” Fujoika said. The California Workforce Association estimated that half of the state’s 200 One-Stops would be shuttered, ironically resulting in layoffs for 500 workers.

One-Stops are generally regarded as the cornerstone of the Workforce Investment Act. They provide the job search assistance, counseling, labor market information, personal assessment and real-time help for getting a job.

Skeptics fear One-Stops are being replaced by training programs that mainly provide revenue and jobs to people in the private sector offering retraining services, while the retrained worker will end up trying to enter an already overcrowded workplace that has no room and little need. Unemployment is a result of too few jobs, not an untrained labor force.

But you don’t have to be a skeptic to question the effectiveness of job-training programs. A 2008 study released by the U.S. Labor Department found “small or nonexistent” benefits from job training through the Dislocated Worker Program. “These estimates imply that the gains from participation are, at best, very modest, even three to four years after entry,” the report said.  

Local flexibility would also be further put to the test as federal funding for the program continues to drop. Fujoika noted 17% declines in Adult and Dislocated Worker funding to California local boards between FY 2009-2010 and 2011-12. The end result would be a cut in total funding for the local boards and then a further cut in non-job training programs.

The law also contains unfunded mandates—paperwork requirements with no accompanying funds for administration—that would complicate, if not eliminate, the leveraging of federal money to obtain other funding.

Arguments Against State Control (Letter from Los Angeles County Chief Executive Officer William T. Fujioka)

State and Local Workforce Investment Boards: Funding (Around the Capitol)

Oppose Senate Bill 766 (Cal Workforce Association)

The Great Retraining Lie (by Jonathan Tasini, Working Life)

Job Retraining May Fall Short of High Hopes (by Michael Luo, New York Times)

Obama Announces New Push to Train the Unemployed (by Susie Madrak, posted on CrooksandLiars.com)

Workforce Investment Act Non-Experimental (IMPAQ International) (pdf)

Retraining Workers Won't Work (by Rebecca Wilder, News N Economics)

The State Knows Best

The primary intent of job training is to improve the earning potential of workers over the long haul. The kind of employment services provided in One-Stops are vital, but they focus on the short-term goal of getting someone a job quickly.

The relevant policy issue is which approach will lower California’s unemployment rate and provide higher incomes for its workers. Supporters of a state effort to shift resources to job training say job training programs outperform job search/placement assistance services over time.

Maurice McTigue, a scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, agrees. “We should focus on improving the employability of the unemployed, not creating jobs for them.”  Conservative think tanks like the Hoover Institution and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) see job training as the first line of attack on unemployment. They not only advocate a focus on job training by the government, they would like to see the efforts consolidated and submitted to the free market for refinement.

Alex Brill at AEI says the federal government should create an “education bank” with various initiatives to retrain workers while educational institutions and start-up companies vie for funding to create the bank’s programs. Michael J. Boskin at Hoover would take all the various federal job-training programs, consolidate them and offer vouchers to the unemployed to make use of their services.

Greater state control with a higher emphasis on job training is not some radical experiment. Florida mandates that its local boards spend 50% of their money on job training. Illinois requires 40%. Michigan has raised its effective rate to over 50% by steering money into job training programs that focus on in-demand occupations. And Wisconsin implemented regulations boosting its job training percentage to 35%.

Supporters of the higher job training rate point out that the federal Job Training Partnership Act—predecessor to the Workforce Investment Act—required spending at least 50% of federal funds on job training.

California used to be a national leader in manufacturing but that isn’t the case anymore. A jump-start for the manufacturing sector requires a highly-trained workforce. Career technical training has been de-emphasized in the state for decades and now that the skill baby boomers are retiring, the need is greater than ever for job training.

Improving California’s Workforce Development System (Little Hoover Commission) (pdf)

State Researchers Find Locals Spend Less Than 25 Percent of Targeted Funds on Job Training (Office of state Senator Ted Lieu)

State Should Step Up Worker Training (by Jack Stewart and Art Pulaski, Riverside Press-Enterprise op-ed)

How Can Obama Solve Long-Term Unemployment? (by Tami Luhby, CNN Money)

The Time for Spending Cuts Is Now (by Michael J. Boskin, Hoover Institution)

Douglas Sale, 2011 (acting)

Barbara Halsey, 2007-2011

Brian McMahon, 2005-2007

Robert W. Seurkamp, 2003-2007

Andrew Baron, 2001-2003