dept of labor

The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program at NIST recently released the Job Quality Toolkit which outlines eight “drivers of job quality.” The toolkit aims to enhance the discussion around job quality, becoming an “actionable tool… to improve the quality of every job,” which will improve employee recruitment and retention.

A new $113 million grant program intended to strengthen and modernize the Registered Apprenticeship Program (RAP) will designate up to $50 million for equity partnerships and pre-apprenticeship activities. The U.S. Department of Labor announced the new grant program to enable more workers to earn while they learn and find reliable pathways to the middle class. Using a coordinated investment strategy, the Apprenticeship Building America grant program will bring the RAP model to new sectors and industries.

Independent contractors notched a win as the U.S. Department of Labor (DoL) this month announced the withdrawal of the “Independent Contractor Rule.” The rule, which was issued two weeks before the change in presidential administrations, would have made it easier for employers to classify workers as independent contractors and would have provided employers more security from challenges by contract workers for minimum wages and overtime pay. In withdrawing the rule, DoL said workers would have lost Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) protections.  And while the number of independent contractors rose during the pandemic, a recent story from the Rockefeller Institute of Government sheds light on how little is known about the real number of gig workers.

The Department of Labor recently announced awards totaling $183.8 million in Scaling Apprenticeships Through Sector-Based Strategies grants. Funded through H-1B visa fees, the grants will support the training of more than 85,000 apprentices. The grantees include 23 academic institutions and grant-matching industry consortia representing 18 states, and includes three SSTI members — the University of Cincinnati, Lorain County Community College and the State University of New York Research Foundation.

For communities hoping to start and register an apprenticeship program, a new toolkit by the Department of Labor may offer some insight. Launched as part of National Apprenticeship Week (Nov. 12-18, 2018), “Building Registered Apprenticeship Programs” provides a guide to help start and register your apprenticeship program. The toolkit includes five steps: exploration of apprenticeships as a strategy to meet regional needs; partnerships with key players to develop the program; building the core components of the program; registration with the broader apprenticeship network; and, launching the program.

Congress is set to pass portions of the overall FY 2019 federal budget before the end of the current fiscal year, which has been rare over the last decade. To keep pace, SSTI will be running a series of FY 2019 budget updates. Part I is Energy and Water (including Regional Agencies), Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs. Part II is Defense with Labor and HHS, as well as a CR for the rest of the government through Dec. 7.

Unless otherwise noted, all FY 2018 figures are from the department’s budget justification, and all FY 2017 figures are from committee reports for the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017.

Congress has passed a budget for FY 2017 that largely continues support for federal innovation programs and R&D investments. Among the highlights are $17 million for Regional Innovation Strategies (a $2 million increase over FY 2016), level funding of $130 million for the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership and $5 million for SBA’s clusters program. In reviewing dozens of line items, offices that had received significant cuts in the White House’s skinny budget appear to receive some of the largest funding increases (such as the Appalachian Regional Commission, Community Development Block Grant and ARPA-E). However, with the exception of multi-billion dollar increases for Department of Defense R&D, many increases are rather small in terms of overall dollars. This is, at least in part, a reflection of non-defense spending caps rising by only $40 million for FY 2017, limiting the availability of new funds. In this context, science and innovation gains are particularly impressive, with a five percent overall increase for federal R&D that particularly benefits NASA and NIH.

The Economic Development Administration (EDA), the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), and the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) have announced $38.8 million in funding as a part of the Obama administration’s Partnerships for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization (POWER) Initiative – a coordinated federal effort to align, leverage and target a range of federal economic and workforce development programs and resources to assist communities negatively impacted by global transition away from coal.  In addition to $38.8 million in federal support, the federal partners anticipate that POWER investments will help coal-impacted communities leverage an additional $67 million from other public and private partners.

The Employment Training Administration (ETA) released solicitations for a total of 12 ApprenticeshipUSA Single Industry Intermediary Contracts and ApprenticeshipUSA Multiple Industry Intermediary Contracts to become national ApprenticeshipUSA partners and have a leading role in the Sectors of Excellence in Apprenticeship (SEAs) in several key industries. Through these grants, ETA will commit up to $7.5 million to start or scale national apprenticeship programs that meet the occupational and skill needs of their industries. The department will award both single and multi-industry contracts to national organizations – such as industry associations, joint labor management organizations, workforce groups, educational institutions, and consortia of organizations – that will provide financial and technical assistance to employers pursuing apprenticeship training.