Report: Use workforce dollars to boost job quality
Posted December 17, 2015 in Press Releases
States should focus workforce-development plans on employers that meet high standards for managing their labor force.
Contact: Hannah Halbert, 614-221-4505
States and local agencies should make job quality part of their workforce-development plans, to ensure money is targeted to employers that have demonstrated good practices in managing their workers, a new report by Policy Matters Ohio and other groups says.States can target workforce plans required under the new federal Workforce Investment and Opportunity Act (WIOA) to employers that meet certain standards, such as paid sick leave and low turnover rates.
The federal law aims to increase training, education, and work opportunities for vulnerable job seekers, low-income adults and youth who have limited skills, lack work experience, or face other barriers to self-sufficiency. Often these workers end up in jobs that offer little opportunity for economic stability or advancement.
States are required to submit their workforce-development plans by early next year.
“State and local workforce plans should set floors for job quality and steer support to employers that meet certain standards, such as family-friendly work policies, low turnover rates, paid sick leave, and no record of wage theft or last-minute scheduling,” said Hannah Halbert, workforce researcher with Policy Matters Ohio. “In an American economy struggling to create enough middle-class jobs, state and local workforce development systems need to pull their oars together in the direction of better job quality.”
The report drills down into employer practices in three areas to demonstrate the potential of targeting workforce resources to employers with better practices:
Employee turnover -- The report uses a specific example of the Wisconsin nursing home industry: A significant number of Wisconsin homes have low