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Workforce Florida Weekly Update 6-14-06 |
CONTENTS The State & RegionsManpower Employment Outlook Survey released – Florida employers anticipate strong hiring pace. From July to September, 41% of the Florida companies interviewed plan to hire more employees, while 5% expect to reduce their payrolls resulting in a net increase of 36% companies who plan to hire new staff. Another 45% expect to maintain their current staff levels, while 9% are undecided about their July – September hiring plans. Top five areas with the highest percentage net increases in employers’ intent to hire: Broward County (60%); Pensacola (60%); St. Johns County (60%); Jacksonville (53%); and Melbourne (50%). The areas with the lowest net increases are Gainesville (3%), Stuart (14%) and Miami (15%). According to the national seasonally adjusted results of the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, U.S. employers still won’t budge on hiring plans for the third quarter of 2006. Of the 16,000 U.S. employers surveyed, 31% expect to add to their payrolls during the third quarter of 2006, while 6% expect to reduce staff levels. Fifty-seven percent expect no change in the hiring pace, while 6% are undecided about their July – September hiring plans. (The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey is conducted quarterly to measure employers’ intentions to increase or decrease the number of employees in their workforce during the next quarter. The complete results of the national Manpower Employment Outlook Survey can be found in the Press Room of our Web site at www.manpower.com. There you will also see the survey findings from 24 other countries and territories around the world. Nearly 100K “Citizen Soldiers” are currently
on active duty – the workforce community must respond
to their needs when they come home. Nearly 100K “Citizen
Soldiers” are currently on active duty – the
workforce community must respond to their needs when they
come home. The total number of mobilized National Guard and
Reserve personnel has reached 98,974 including both units
and individual augmentees. Currently on active duty in support
of the partial mobilization for the Army National Guard and
Army Reserve is 79,715; Navy Reserve, 4,973; Air National
Guard and Air Force Reserve, 7,234; Marine Corps Reserve,
6,685; and the Coast Guard Reserve, 367. Mike Switzer, WFI
suggests the following opportunities for the workforce system
to respond to the needs of our returning soldier’s: Latest LMS’ Labor Market Trends monthly newsletter available. This month features an article on manufacturing, comparing Florida to the US and an introduction to the Census Bureau’s On The Map, a web-based, interactive mapping application. The application shows where people work and where workers live on maps with companion reports on their age, earnings, and industry distributions. Download LMS’ Labor Market Trends and their other publications at: http://www.labormarketinfo.com/pubs/ Polk Works names Tom Hornack Interim Executive Director. Bartow, FL (June 13, 2006) – The Executive Committee of the Polk Works Board of Directors, upon recommendation by Executive Director Nancy Thompson, has appointed Assistant Director Tom Hornack to serve as Interim Executive Director. Mr. Hornack has been working in workforce development since 1982 and started with Polk Works on July 1, 1996, when the organization began. Ms. Thompson announced her resignation June 1 to become Vice President of Florida Operations for Arbor Education & Training, LLC. Regretfully, the Executive Committee accepted Ms. Thompson’s resignation, concurring, “This is a positive career move for Nancy and we believe Tom is the best person to guide Polk Works through the transition process." The Board also authorized procurement for an executive search firm. Prior to Polk Works beginning contract negotiations with Arbor for Program Year 06-07, Ms. Thompson removed herself from the contracting process. Polk Works is the Regional Workforce Development Board for Polk County to oversee federal and state funds dedicated to preparing and upgrading a skilled workforce. Workforce development services are available through a variety of programs, including the Polk Works One-Stop Center System, Young Leaders, WorkForce 2020 and REACT. The NationCQ Today Midday Update - WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 2006 – 2:10
P.M
House Subcommittee Approves Labor Spending Bill. The House Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations Subcommittee last week approved on a party-line vote (9-7) the spending bill that would fund the workforce system in FY 2007. The bill is scheduled for consideration by the House Appropriations Committee on June 13 and is likely to be approved. Upon approval by the House Appropriations Committee the bill would be ready for consideration on the House floor. The Senate has not yet begun consideration of the FY 2007 spending bill for workforce programs. Overall, the House approved FY 2007 spending bill would cut the Employment and Training Administration's (ETA) budget for FY 2007 by $409 million compared to the FY 2006 level. The bill would cut the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Adult program by $10 million, the WIA Youth program by $5 million and the WIA Dislocated Worker program by $121 million. NASWA is investigating how the $121 million reduction to the WIA Dislocated Worker program would be applied to state grants. The Unemployment Insurance (UI) state operations appropriation would increase by $142 million. Approximately $102 million of this amount was requested by the ETA to manage additional UI operational activity projected from the increase in number of employers and workers. The remaining $40 million was requested by the Administration to continue face-to-face beneficiary eligibility reviews and proposals to improve integrity. The Employment Service (ES) program would be cut by $27 million under the House spending bill. This reduction was requested by the Administration. The One-Stop Career Centers/Labor Market Information program would be cut by $42 million for the largest cut as a percentage of the overall program budget of any workforce program. This program would effectively be cut by half if the numbers approved by the House Subcommittee are approved by the Congress for a FY 2007 appropriation totaling $40 million. Appropriations for state administration of Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS) programs would be flat-funded at $162 million. Additional information on the House Subcommittee's approved spending bill and appropriations will be available on the Workforce ATM and the Bulletin over the coming week. Questions regarding this information should be directed to Curt Harris, NASWA Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs Director at 202.434.8020. Download the House Appropriations Comparison Chart at: http://www.workforceatm.org/sections/pdf/2006/LH_Detail_SCWEB.pdf. USDA provides $75.7 million in Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) aid for 2005 hurricane victims. Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns last week announced the availability of $75.7 million Emergency Conservation Program (ECP) funds for newly authorized practices to help landowners and operators address 2005 hurricane damages. "These Emergency Conservation Program funds will help farmers, forest owners, nursery and poultry producers rehabilitate operations damaged by last year's devastating hurricanes," said Johanns. "This is one of the many programs USDA is administering as part of our commitment to help farmers and ranchers and rural communities to recover." The new ECP funds and practices are authorized by the 2006 Emergency Appropriations Act, signed by President Bush on Dec. 30, 2005, which provides $900 million to address natural disaster damages from 2005 hurricanes. Of these funds, approximately $400 million is designated for the Emergency Forestry Conservation Reserve Program, $200 million for the Emergency Conservation Program and $300 million for the Emergency Watershed Protection Program. Generally, ECP provides assistance for producers to rehabilitate farmland and conservation practices damaged by natural disasters, including hurricanes. In addition, the Farm Service Agency (FSA) will offer cost-share assistance for new practices to remove debris from and replant damaged forestland, clean up nursery structures including shadehouses and above-ground irrigation systems and rebuild poultry structures. Producers can sign up for ECP at their local FSA office. To be eligible, producers must have suffered losses in a county that received a primary presidential or secretarial disaster designation due to calendar year 2005 hurricanes and approved for ECP. ECP assistance is unavailable for contiguous counties. A list of the eligible counties, located in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and Texas, is available online at: http://www.fsa.usda.gov/pas/publications/facts/html/hurrcounties06.htm. Since the devastating 2005 hurricane season, USDA has invested $96 million in ECP funds into the states most affected by these storms to rehabilitate damaged cropland, including removing debris, grading and shaping, rebuilding fences and restoring conservation practices. ECP provides cost-share assistance up to 75 percent. However, producers may receive up to 100 percent cost-share assistance for these activities for damages caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita only. Producers who suffered a minimum of 35 percent loss of their private commercial forest may be eligible to receive assistance to remove timber debris and replant their forest. FSA will provide $31.8 million for forest restoration work. Producers will be eligible to receive up to 75 percent of the cost associated with debris removal and forest planting, up to a maximum of $150 per acre. FSA will assure that duplicate payments are not made to producers for the same practices under different federal programs such as the Emergency Forestry Conservation Reserve Program and the Emergency Watershed Program. Many nursery operations were also damaged or destroyed by the storms. FSA will offer $30.6 million to remove debris in nurseries, including shadehouses and above-ground irrigation structures, and poultry house structures. FSA may provide up to 90 percent of the eligible costs for debris removal. The hurricanes also affected the poultry industry. FSA will offer $13.2 million in assistance. Producers can receive assistance on some non-insured damages to their poultry houses. The total federal assistance plus private insurance payment is limited to 90 percent of the replacement value for a similar structure. Subject to that limit, cost-share assistance will be the lesser of 50 percent of the eligible cost of reconstruction / repair or $50,000 per poultry house. These funds will help producers rebuild their operations. Producers will be required to rebuild to current building code requirements. The 2006 Emergency Appropriations Act also provided funding for the rehabilitation of oyster beds. Details on the distribution of those funds are still being developed and will be announced soon. The maximum ECP payment is $200,000 per person, per disaster. More information on ECP is available at local FSA offices and online at: http://disaster.fsa.usda.gov/fsa.asp. Additional information on USDA Hurricane assistance is available at http://www.usda.gov/HurricaneInfo.xml. NASWA’s Workforce Bulletin - June 9, 2006 HEADLINES:
Access the complete articles at: http://www.workforceatm.org/sections/members/bulletin/ Grant and Competitive Award Opportunities and NoticesFor additional information go to, visit the External Grant Opportunities page.Featured Opportunity:Workforce Florida’s First Jobs/First Wages Council has issued a grant solicitation titled ‘Replication of the CHOICE Career Institute’. Only Regional Workforce Boards are eligible to apply. The purpose of this Grant Solicitation is to seek applications for projects that replicate the Community High Okaloosa Institutes for Career Education (CHOICE) developed and implemented by the Okaloosa County School District in school year 2003-04. This is Phase II of CHOICE replication which was started under a similar grant solicitation issued in November 2004. Submissions are due July 25, 2006; 5:00 PM, Eastern For more information go to: http://www.workforceflorida.com/wages/wfi/rfp/index.htm#grant. State Grants(none) Federal GrantsHigh Growth Job Training Initiative Grants for the Advanced Manufacturing Industry (REPEAT) Transportation Planning/Investment Operations Effects on Minority and Low-Income Populations Research and Demo Projects Strategies to Promote Employment in Transit Construction Projects by Members of Minority and Low-income Communities (Repeat) Rural Access to Emergency Devices National Technical Assistance Program Small Minority Producer Grant National Quality Improvement Center on Non-Resident Fathers Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) (Repeat) Community Services Block Grant Training and Technical Assistance Program: Special State Technical Assistance Demonstration Projects in Post-Adoption Services and Marriage Education Homeless Veteran Reintegration 2006 Stand Down Grants (Repeat) Foundation GrantsWHO Foundation Grants YSA Youth Venture Funding American Legion Child Welfare Foundation Grants Scholarships/Awards(none) Upcoming Meetings, Conferences and
Events
Workforce Florida Board and Related Meetings Schedule:For up-to-date WFI board meeting info please check the calendar at the WFI website. June 21, 2006 June 25-27, 2006 July 19, 2006 August 23, 2006 August 24, 2006 August 24, 2006 Other Meetings/Conferences/Events:
June 15, 2006 June 15, 2006 July 11-13, 2006
Watch the Conference website for further program updates and to register at: http://www.workforceinnovations.org/. August 21 –August 23, 2006 Nov. 30 - Dec. 2, 2006 USDOL’s Workforce Tools of the Trade Workforce Investment Systemwide Events Page. http://www.workforcetools.org/calendar.asp Odds and EndsThe latest Update on the National Work Readiness Credential
(NWRC) is available online. How Important Is the "Service Sector Effect" on
Productivity? (by Jim Heskett HBSWK Pub. Date: May 29, 2006.)
In the cost-driven U.S. service economy, are worker benefits
being sacrificed in the name of lower-cost services to customers?
Are these social costs more than offset by the benefits of
job creation, the consumption stimulus that spurs job creation,
and lower unemployment? One can make the argument that a
small group of organizations like the Vanguard Group, Southwest
Airlines, and Wal-Mart (in the U.S.) have had a profound
impact on the way we live and work. They share several things
in common: (1) a penchant for driving down costs in their
respective industries, (2) a focus on serving customers,
and (3) policies and competencies that have literally changed
the rules of the game for their respective industries worldwide.
In spite of recent adverse publicity regarding Wal-Mart's
personnel practices, all of these organizations have made
their places of work so attractive that their employees may
work harder over longer hours than they otherwise might.
Whether this leads to a higher standard of living than that
of their European counterparts is debatable. But there is
growing evidence that providing pleasant work environments,
aided to some degree by new technology, has spearheaded the
continued high rate of improvement in productivity in the
U.S. in recent years. In fact, a recent report by the McKinsey
Global Institute has found that five of the top seven industries
that have led productivity growth in the period of 2000 to
2003 are service industries like retailing and financial
services. Increasing productivity in the service sector has
been accompanied by increasing employment, a phenomenon somewhat
at odds with experience in the glory days of manufacturing.
Thanks in part to new technology, service sector workers
work smarter. But they are working just as many hours as
before. Perhaps lower-paying jobs force people to work more
hours to sustain a certain lifestyle. But it may also be
that more customers (including workers who need more services
if they are to maintain their "work style") want
and are able to afford the services these workers deliver.
Whatever it is, Americans continue to work long hours at
a time when people in some other countries increasingly stand
by watching them do it. Read the rest of this article at:
http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item.jhtml?id=5362&t=heskett&oid=5362&rid=5374&hid=-1&aid=-1. Kauffman Foundation Study on Entrepreneurial Activity Shows Entrepreneurs Increasingly Foreign-Born and Getting Grayer. (KANSAS CITY, Mo.), May 23, 2006 - Immigrants far outpaced native-born Americans in entrepreneurial activity last year while African Americans were the only major ethnic or racial group to experience a year-to-year increase in the rate of entrepreneurship, according to a national assessment of entrepreneurial activity by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. The rate of entrepreneurial activity for immigrants in 2005 was 0.35 percent compared to 0.28 percent for native-born Americans, according to the Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity. In other words, approximately 350 out of 100,000 immigrants started a business per month in 2005 compared to 280 out of 100,000 native-born Americans. These rates represent approximately 85,000 immigrants creating new businesses per month and 379,000 native-born individuals creating new businesses per month. While annual government statistics indicate that approximately ten percent of the U.S. workforce owns a business, the Kauffman Index illustrates the number of people starting new businesses each month. With 0.29 percent of the total adult population starting new businesses per month, there was an average of approximately 464,000 people creating new businesses each month in 2005. This rate represents a slight decline from the 470,000 people creating new businesses per month in 2004. For more information and to download a copy of the report go to: http://www.kauffman.org/items.cfm?itemID=703. “The New South: Lofts, Lattes in Mayberry” (From
Southern Compass, June 13th). A recent article in the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution characterizes the “small-town
Now South” as “a wireless, latte-fueled, even
hip update on places etched in Old South traditions.” It
tells the stories of communities such as Greenville, South
Carolina, where downtown condos and microbrew restaurants
have sprouted in recent years, Greenwood, Mississippi, where
visitors are lured by an upscale cooking school and boutique
hotel, and Mount Airy, North Carolina, where a tobacco warehouse
is being converted into apartments. It’s not just upscale
singles, but also empty nesters and former city-dwellers
or who are fueling these trends, they observe. Read, “The
New South: Lofts, Lattes in Mayberry,” at: http://www.ajc.com/today/content/epaper/editions/today/news_449734fe2506a16b00ea.html Quote for the Week:“To know the way ahead, ask those coming back.” Chinese proverb |
