More than three dozen organizations – including several community colleges and youth-serving agencies – will split $150 million in “green jobs” grants released Wednesday by the U.S. Department of Labor.

The grants – dubbed Pathways out of Poverty grants and part of a larger, $500 million green jobs initiative under the Recovery Act – are meant to help disadvantaged communities “gain access to the good, safe and prosperous jobs of the 21st century green economy,” U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis said in a statement announcing the grants.

The labor secretary said green jobs offer “tremendous opportunities” for those who are prepared to work them.

That’s where youth-serving agencies and organizations such as CNY Works Inc. – one of 38 organizations to be awarded the grants – come in.

CNY Works Inc. will partner with the State University of New York (SUNY) College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse to train approximately 750 individuals – roughly a quarter of them disadvantaged youths – for jobs in the emerging so-called “green economy.”

Michael Irwin, program manager at CNY Works Inc., said the jobs will be within construction, as electricians’ apprentices and the like, and involve taking a green approach to the work.

Even though it’s unclear just how vibrant the green economy will be and how many jobs it will produce, Irwin says the green jobs training provided under CNY’s $3.7 million grant will help make trainees more employable.

“You’ve got to look forward, not backward,” Irwin said. “Looking at these jobs, it makes sense to either go through the training and get a job right away, or, as the jobs evolve, you’re preparing for the future as well.”

Irwin said CNY Works Inc., which serves as the federally-funded one-stop location in Syracuse, N.Y., has talked with area employers with green jobs to ensure that work is lined up for some trainees when they finish the program. He says the program should be in operation by March.

Other youth-serving agencies to win Pathways out of Poverty grants include local and national organizations, such as Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America, Inc., which received  $4.9 million, to lesser-known Boley Centers, Inc. of St. Petersburg, Fla., which was awarded  $2.3 million to serve disadvantaged and unemployed youths; and PathStone Corp., of Rochester, NY,  which received $8 million to provide training in deconstruction, renewable energy and recycling to high school dropouts, among others.

To view a complete list of grant recipients and their project descriptions, go to http://www.doleta.gov/pdf/Pathways_Poverty_grants.pdf

The final portion of the $500 million in Recovery Act green jobs training money is scheduled to be released in the coming weeks, according to the labor department.

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Perhaps the only thing more challenging than the business environment this year was the criteria for making the list, which, with eight newcomers, was the most competitive yet.
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The study by the Pew Research Center, an independent research group, highlights a rapidly graying labor market due to longer life spans, an aging baby boomer population and a souring economy that has made it harder to retire.

Pew’s survey and analysis of government data, found the share of Americans ages 55 and older who have or were seeking a job rose to 40 percent this year, the highest level since 1961. In contrast, people 16 to 24 who were active in the labor market decreased to 57 percent, down from 66 percent in 2000.

Asked to identify why they’re working, 54 percent of older workers responded that it was mostly because they wanted to, citing a desire while they were still feeling healthy to be productive, interact with other people or to “give myself something to do.” A sizable number of them — nearly 4 in 10 — also acknowledged staying put at work partly because of the recession.

Among young people 16 to 24, nearly half the respondents said they weren’t working because they wanted to focus on school or job training, reflecting a growing view among Americans that a college education is needed to get ahead in life. About 4 in 10 said they looked for work but couldn’t find a job.

In all, the number of older workers is projected to increase by 11.9 million in the next few years. They will make up nearly 1 in 4 workers by 2016.

“When it comes to work, this recession is having a differential impact by age. It’s keeping older adults in the work force longer, and younger adults out of the work force longer,” said Paul Taylor, director of the Pew Social and Demographic Trends Project. “Both of these trends pre-dated the current downturn, both have been intensified by it, and both are poised to outlast it.”

Among other findings:

—The U.S. labor force is expected to increase by 12.8 million workers from 2006 to 2016, including the 11.9 million who will be ages 55 and older. Workers ages 25 to 54 will increase by 2.5 million, while those ages 16 to 24 will decrease by 1.5 million.

—After increasing for five decades, the share of women holding or seeking a job has flattened at 59 percent. That is about 13 percentage points below the rate of men in the labor market. Asked to identify their reasons for not working, women were nine times more likely than men to cite child care or other family responsibilities as a major factor.

—Older workers tend to be happier. About 54 percent of workers ages 65 and older said they were “completely satisfied” with their jobs, compared with 29 percent of workers ages 18 to 64. That reflected the fact that they were working primarily for more social reasons, rather than financial need.

—Most working mothers prefer a part-time job. Among those with a full-time job outside the home, 6 in 10 said they would like to have a job with fewer hours. By contrast, just 19 percent of fathers with a full-time job and a young child said they would prefer to work part-time.

“Public attitudes about women and work may have changed dramatically over the past generation, but mothers and fathers still experience the tug between work and family in very different ways,” Taylor said. “Mothers who have children at home and work full time would rather be working part time, or not at all. Fathers who have children at home are glad to have a full-time job.”

Pew based its findings on data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It also interviewed 1,815 people ages 16 and older by cell phone or landline from July 20 to Aug. 2 about their attitudes toward work. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.

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Analysts generally believe that economic output began rising by late summer. But new Labor Department data released Friday morning shows that that improvement isn’t yet flowing through to the job market, as employers remain highly reluctant to add staff.

The rise in the unemployment rate rose to 9.7 percent in August, from 9.4 percent in July, resumed a steep upward path that has been only rarely interrupted since the recession began in December 2007. Employers shed 216,000 net jobs, significantly better than the revised 276,000 jobs lost in July and less than the 230,000 decline that forecasters expected.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs pointed to the unemployment trend line as positive. “We are continuing to see a slowing of the pace of job loss,” he said.

“We’re losing more than we’re creating, but we’re heading in the right direction,” Gibbs said. The country, he said, has “pulled back from the precipice” of a second Depression.”

Still, Gibbs said, President Obama “won’t be satisfied until we’re creating jobs.”

The tally now stands at 6.9 million jobs lost since the beginning of the recession in December 2007. A broader measure of joblessness rose even more sharply than the headline unemployment rate. An expanded unemployment rate that includes people who have given up looking for a job out of frustration and who are working part time but want a full-time job rose to 16.8 percent, from 16.3 percent.

The rate of job losses has been declining, if haltingly, since winter. The August numbers, bad as they are, do offer hope that job losses will continue tapering off. Economists generally consider the job loss numbers to be a more reliable month-to-month barometer of the economy than the unemployment rate, and that measure indicated the slowest rate of job loss since August 2008.

The report also said that the average workweek was unchanged at 33.1 hours. Employers have cut back on hours in the current downturn, in addition to cutting jobs entirely, and are expected to have existing employees work longer hours before bringing new people onto their staffs. The hours-worked number confirms that employers have stopped cutting back hours but gives no evidence they are starting to expand hours yet.

Among the most positive signs in the report, average earnings for non-managerial workers rose 0.3 percent in August, the Labor Department said.

The job losses, though lower than in recent months, remained broad-based. The construction industry cut 65,000 jobs, in line with the recent trend. Manufacturing companies cut 63,000 jobs. The health-care sector, as it has throughout the recession, added jobs.

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Richmond added about 8,000 jobs in health care and education since last year.

Bill Mezger, chief economist for the Virginia Employment Commission, said Richmond is well positioned for growth in both industries.

“Richmond is fortunate to have institutions in both of those fields located here,” Mezger said. “Most have been here for a long time and have continued to grow with national demand for health care and education.”

According to VEC’s numbers, the region added 5,200 health and education jobs between April 2008 and April 2009, a 6.4 percent increase.

The region’s No. 1 employer is the VCU Health System with 7,399 employees as of Jan. 1, up more than 300. HCA, which operates more than 30 clinics and hospitals in the area, is the third largest employer in the area. Bon Secours Richmond Health System is the sixth largest employer. Those numbers are according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s list of top employers.

The demand is evident on Craigslist, which has had more than 350 classifieds posted in the past 30 days under the health care category. More than 150 were listed under education. (Compare that with about 25 postings for manufacturing jobs.)

Mezger said Richmond has long been a health-care center for the Upper South and is home to the largest state university as well as several other private and public schools.

He said both industries continued to grow during previous recessions as well. The two are grouped together because of the amount of training in those fields, as well as the public sector component.

Demand for education labor is up because more out of work people are going back to school, Mezger said. He added that while many state schools could face budget pressure from falling tax revenue, most have raised tuition in anticipation of possible cuts.

In health care, on the other hand, demand for jobs is being driven in part by technological advances.

“It used to be you had something wrong you went to the doctor and got a prescription,” Mezger said. “Now quite often you go to the doctor for an ailment and you are being sent to a couple specialists before you are through and maybe a therapist.”

Also, many health-care costs are covered by Medicaid and private insurance, which isn’t affected by declines in consumer spending.

In the Business First analysis, Richmond is sixth in terms of number of health-care and education jobs created in the last year. New York tops the list with 34,200, followed by Dallas/Fort Worth with 21,400.

Richmond is preceded by Atlanta with 8,900 jobs, and followed by Indianapolis with 7,500 jobs.

Barbara Brown, head of workforce development for the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association, said the demand for health-care professionals will continue to grow.

“We are coming into a time when there are a lot of retirements happening,” she said.

The VEC projects a 34 percent increase in health-care jobs between 2006 and 2016. Estimated employment in 2006 was 58,037 jobs.

Brown said the average age for nurses is 48 and that the average doctor is 55 years old. She many of them have only about 10 to 15 years left before they retire, which is creating demand now for nurse practitioners and physician assistants to fill their shoes when the time comes.

Also in high demand are pharmacists and physical therapists, said Brown.

Original article may be viewed here.

The U.S. central bank also kept its benchmark short-term interest rate steady near zero and said it would likely stay there for an extended period to guide the way to recovery.

The Fed made its clearest statement to date that it sees the recession nearing an end and that shattered financial markets are healing.

“Information since the Federal Open Market Committee met in June suggests economic activity is leveling out,” the Fed said, referring to its policy-setting panel. “Conditions in financial markets have improved in recent weeks.”

It is the first time since August 2008 that the committee’s statement has not characterized the economy as contracting, weakening, or slowing.

Many peg the onset of the crisis to French bank BNP Paribas’ move in August 2007 to freeze funds because of problems with U.S. subprime mortgages. In the months that followed, the U.S. economy toppled into the most damaging financial crisis and painful recession in decades, and the economic malaise spread around the world.

“They see the worst with the economy is behind us but they don’t want to jump the gun and pull back quickly,” said Craig Thomas, a senior economist at PNC Financial Services in Pittsburgh.

The Fed cautioned that the economy remains fragile as employers continue to cut jobs and businesses trim investment.

U.S. Treasury prices fell after the Fed statement in apparent disappointment that the Fed did not increase the amount of debt that it plans to buy but subsequently regained some ground.

However, major U.S. stock indexes flirted with 10-month highs and the U.S. dollar rose against the yen.

The Fed cut interest rates to a range of between zero and 0.25 percent in December and pumped hundreds of billions of dollars into financial markets to stimulate economic activity in aggressive efforts to thwart the recession.

President Barack Obama’s ability to implement his health care and environmental reforms partly depend on his administration’s ability to turn the economy around with a controversial $787-billion economic stimulus package.

The recession has seen tax revenues fall and spending rise, leading to a record federal budget deficit expected to top $1.84 trillion in the current fiscal year.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke’s own renomination hopes for a second term have a lot riding on his ability to restore growth and jobs after the Fed’s role in controversial financial rescues and after questions about why the Fed did not spot the gathering storm earlier and take steps to prevent it.

Recent reports imply that the economy may be coming out of its swoon and that job losses, which have topped 6 million since the recession began in December 2007, may be moderating.

Still, the Fed renewed its warning that economic activity is likely to stay soft for “a time.” Household spending, while stabilizing, is still weak as a result of the grim labor market and tight credit, the Fed said.

To quell worries the Fed’s bloated balance sheet may sow the seeds of dangerous inflation once the recovery gains traction, Bernanke has taken pains to explain the Fed has tools to pull money out of the financial system to prevent price pressures from building.

Some analysts also worry the Fed’s easy money policies are setting the stage for another asset bubble, just as an extended period of low rates in the early part of the decade encouraged the housing boom that triggered the crisis.

The central bank cautiously moved to pull back some of that help for the economy on Wednesday, signaling it would slowly phase out a program to buy $300 billion in longer-term Treasuries by the end of October.

“To promote a smooth transition in markets as these purchases of Treasury securities are completed, the committee has decided to gradually slow the pace of these transactions

and anticipates that the full amount will be purchased by the end of October,” the Fed said.

The Fed launched the debt-buying program in March when it had already chopped interest rates to zero but wanted to open the money taps even wider to support the struggling economy. Treasury purchases were scheduled to expire in September.

The Fed’s decision to refrain from expanding its bond buying while standing pat on rates contrasts with approaches taken by other central banks around the world faced different stages of economic and financial stabilization.

The Bank of England stunned markets last week by expanding its program of bond purchases by a much larger amount than expected, saying the recession deeper than it had forecast.

Original article may be viewed here.

How the Money is Allocated to Each State
Sixty-one percent of the funds are allocated by each state’s population aged 5 to 24. The remaining 39 percent of funds are allocated based on total state population. Out of each state’s allocation based on these measures, 81.8 percent is reserved for the education block grant, and 18.2 percent is considered the “flexible” grant.

How the Money is to be Spent
The $39.5 billion in education grants would support K-12 and higher education during state fiscal years 2009, 2010, and 2011. A portion of the funds would be dedicated to helping states maintain K-12 and higher education funding; the remainder would flow directly to local school districts. The funds are available to states immediately, and must be spent within two years of receipt of the grant.

State Incentive Grants
States would have to apply for the incentive grants and show they have made progress on initiatives such as improving the distribution of teachers between high-poverty and low-poverty schools or establishing longitudinal data systems. For states receiving these grants, half of the funds must be passed through to local governments.

Key Target Areas of ARRA Education Funds
ARRA funds should be used to improve student achievement and address four specific areas.
1. Making progress toward rigorous college- and career-ready standards and high-quality assessments that are valid and reliable for all students, including English language learners and students with disabilities;
2. Establishing pre-K-to college and career data systems;
3. Making improvements in teacher effectiveness and in the equitable distribution of qualified teachers for all students, particularly students who are most in need;
4. Providing intensive support and effective interventions for the lowest-performing schools.

Educational Goals of the Obama Administration
1. Reform No Child Left Behind: Obama and Biden will reform NCLB, which starts by funding the law. Obama and Biden
will also improve NCLB’s accountability system so that we are supporting schools that need improvement, rather than
punishing them.
2. Make Math and Science Education a National Priority: Obama and Biden will recruit math and science degree graduates to the teaching profession and will support efforts to help these teachers learn from professionals in the field. They will also work to ensure that all children have access to a strong science curriculum at all grade levels.
3. Address the Dropout Crisis: Obama and Biden will address the dropout crisis by passing legislation to provide funding
to school districts to invest in intervention strategies in middle school.
4. Expand High-Quality Afterschool Opportunities: Obama and Biden will double funding for the main federal support
for afterschool programs, the 21st Century Learning Centers program, to serve one million more children.
5. Support College Outreach Programs: Obama and Biden support outreach programs like GEAR UP, TRIO and Upward
Bound to encourage more young people from low-income families to consider and prepare for college.

M.H. West & Co., Inc. is a proud member of the following educational organizations:
National Head Start Association
National Alliance of Black School Educators
National Association of Elementary School
National Association of Secondary School Principals
Virginia Association of Elementary School Principals

Resources Used for this article:
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
U.S. Department of Education
www.recovery.gov
www.principals.org