Unemployment help arrives

The Idaho Department of Labor has been awarded nearly $3.5 million to expand partnerships for on-the-job training, apprenticeships and other training programs that result in industry-recognized credentials for the long-term unemployed.

The grant from the U.S. Department of Labor's Job-Driven National Emergency Grant program will also finance additional career counseling, coaching and job placement assistance for laid-off workers including foreign-trained immigrants, who qualify as dislocated workers and face barriers to obtaining employment in their trained field or profession.

Idaho was one of 32 states, Puerto Rico and the Cherokee tribal nation to share in $154.8 million in federal grants under the program.

The Idaho Department of Labor will focus the new resources on intensive career guidance; case management; new partnerships with industry organizations; training and career guidance to serve immigrants and refugees in southwestern Idaho; work-based learning opportunities through internships to renew job skills, provide recent work experience and enhanced alignment with other federal, state or local programs like dislocated worker services under the Workforce Investment Act; Trade Adjustment Assistance; regular employment services and economic development agencies.

Part of the federal grant will be used to enhance the availability of real-time labor market information and increase outreach efforts to the long-term unemployed.