The Workforce Development Council will review proposed strategies for the nearly $10 million the Idaho Department of Labor is receiving to assist workers in getting needed training and finding new jobs under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The council, which oversees work force development activities of the Department of Labor, meets April 8 at 9 a.m. at the Meridian School District Training Center, 1303 E. Central Dr. in Meridian.
Through the federal stimulus package, the department is receiving $6 million to augment its Workforce Investment Act programs and services for dislocated workers and low-income adults and youth and another $3.6 million to beef up services for the 48,000 Idaho workers receiving unemployment benefits while they search for new jobs and the thousands more who are looking for better jobs in this recessionary economy.
The council will also be briefed on the enhancements to the unemployment insurance program authorized under the stimulus bill. Idaho has already implemented extended federal benefits and a special $25-a-week supplement to existing unemployment benefits. The Legislature is considering a bill that would expand benefits modestly to laid-off part-time workers who want to continue working only part-time and workers in approved training program who have already exhausted all their other benefits.