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Tina Phillips-Peck learns one aspect of becoming a plumber, cutting pipe, as pipe fitter instructor Pat O'Brien keeps an eye on her work. Phillips-Peck is training as part of an apprenticeship program, which won't be affected by federal cuts, because trainees are in line to get jobs right away.Her training was on Wednesday.
James S. Wood / arizona daily star
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Business

Work-training funds for AZ cut amid surge in joblessness

By Becky Pallack
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.16.2008
Federal funding for local job training is about to hit its lowest level in eight years, even as usage of the local job bank has doubled.
State and local work-force training leaders are criticizing the federal government's cut in job training funds and its timing.
"It seems severely debilitating to be taking money from the system that helps people get jobs when we're smack in the middle of a recession and people are losing their jobs," said Pat Harrington, assistant director for Employment and Rehabilitation Services at the Arizona Department of Economic Security.
The two One Stop centers in Tucson typically help 60 to 75 new clients each week, but lately, they have been seeing about 150 people a week, said Jim Mize, manager of employer outreach.
That's because more Tucson businesses are downsizing, laying people off in big numbers, he said.
Since the beginning of the year, there have been about 25 companies that have had mass layoffs here, sometimes eliminating more than 100 jobs at once. Just last week, Hart & Cooley Inc., a major local manufacturer, announced it will cut 144 jobs by September.
There were 20,600 unemployed people in the Tucson area in January, up nearly 14 percent from 18,100 a year earlier, according to Arizona Department of Commerce research.
Margaret O'Brien, 61, is an experienced medical office manager who has been looking for clerical work since January after working several temporary jobs at a hotel, a medical office and a post office. Employers are cutting back, she said, but there are still job openings.
"The One Stop Center is totally a godsend," she said, because she has access to computers where she spends four to five hours a day looking at potential jobs and sending out résumés.
Still, she worries her identity is lost in the computerized job applications. With her unemployment benefit of $224 a week, she said she fears she is running out of time to find a good job.
"I'm a very dependable, very good worker, and I really enjoy work," O'Brien said.
Displaced workers with few skills normally are steered toward job training programs that help set them on a new career path, but the federal funds budgeted to pay for their training are frozen.
The U.S. Department of Labor is taking back $9.8 million in job-training funds it gave the Arizona Department of Economic Security. That's part of a $250 million nationwide cut.
The Labor Department has changed the way it accounts for Workforce Investment Act funds, which makes it wrongly appear that Arizona and other states have underspent their allocations, Harrington said.
The Labor Department isn't making across-the-board cuts, and funds from other federal programs aren't at risk, Harrington said. A new $5 million grant that four Southern Arizona counties are sharing to pay for high-tech job training will not be cut.
Pima County's share of the cut could be anywhere from $200,000 to $1 million, according to the Pima County Workforce Investment Board.
"I don't know how much we knew about a recession in December when this (federal budget) passed, but we sure know now," said Harrington, of the Arizona Department of Economic Security.
Until Pima County knows exactly how much money the federal government is going to take back, the One Stop centers are trying not to spend any money on job training — instead putting people on a waiting list.
The exception is apprenticeship programs, which are still funded because the trainees get jobs right away, said Mize, the employer-outreach manager. Clients typically receive about $400 for tools and tuition.
One Stop has paid about $600 for 46-year-old Tina Phillips-Peck to take a plumbing apprenticeship program. It paid for her steel-toed boots, books and some tuition.
Because of the cost savings, the former prisoner said she was able to buy a used car to get to her job with R.E. Lee Mechanical Contracting Inc.
Phillips-Peck also received free aptitude testing, résumé help, computer access and access to employers through job fairs at One Stop. Those services won't be affected.
"I would really hate to see the funding being taken away," she said. "This is about changing my life. They've helped me with that first step up. . . . I just want someone else to have that opportunity."
**See the Star 200 special section, which explores local employment trends coupled with an extensive listing of major employers.
● Contact reporter Becky Pallack at 573-4224 or at bpallack@azstarnet.com.
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