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NASWA Bulletin - January 16, 2015

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Register and Make your Hotel Reservations for the 2015 NASWA Winter Policy Forum Today!

Online registration and hotel reservations are now available for the upcoming 2015 NASWA Winter Policy Forum held in Washington, D.C., February 19-20, 2015 at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill.  

NASWA’s annual Winter Policy Forum serves as the premier NASWA event for state workforce agency administrators and other workforce agency professionals to hear from and discuss current economic conditions in the U.S. with national experts in the field, discuss implementation challenges surrounding the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, and also learn about the legislative outlook on a variety of workforce system issues facing Congress. NASWA's Board of Directors will meet on Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill prior to the Winter Policy Forum.

A block of rooms for the 2015 NASWA Winter Policy Forum has been reserved at the Hyatt Regency Washington on Capitol Hill at the government rate of $177 for a standard room, plus applicable tax, currently at 14.5 percent. Hotel reservations can be booked online or via telephone by calling (202) 737-1234. When calling, please identify yourself as a member of NASWA Winter Policy Forum for the room block rate. The government rate is available 3 days pre and post of the meeting dates based on hotel availability. Reservations must be made by Tuesday, January 27, 2015.

For additional information on the Conference Agenda, Registration and other Conference items, please visit http://www.naswa.org/meetings/wpf2015/.

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NASWA Attends NGA Meeting with USDOL Leadership on WIOA Implementation

On Tuesday, January 13, NASWA’s Executive Director Scott Sanders and several NASWA staff were invited to a National Governors Association (NGA) briefing to discuss  implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) with USDOL Leadership, Gerri Fiala and  Byron Zuidema, both Deputy Assistant Secretaries of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.  

Highlights of the meeting with USDOL Leadership:

  • Ms. Fiala said WIOA’s initial timeline to publish a set of Proposed Rules -- known as the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) -- for the Departments of Labor and Education was too ambitious.   That is why the Departments of Labor and Education delayed their publication until the Spring 2015, rather than January 18, 2015 as stipulated in WIOA.  However, despite the delay in the NPRM, they indicated the majority of WIOA would become effective on July 1, 2015, as prescribed in the statute and they encouraged states to plan for implementation.
  • Over the next five months, or until the NPRM’s are published, Ms. Fiala and Mr. Zuidema, indicated the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration will issue a series of guidance documents to support implementation on issues that need immediate guidance.  These may include the following:   The change in the youth formula funds to serve out-of-school youth; Competitive process to be designated or certified as a one-stop operator; The vision of WIOA, The role of states; Clarification of unemployment insurance activities at one-stop centers.  However, Ms. Fiala cautioned these subject areas were still under review and are easily subject to change.
  • Mr. Zuidema indicated, through a grant structure, NASWA and other Intergovernmental Organizations, like NGA, are working with the USDOL to provide technical assistance to states to assist with the July 1, 2015 implementation and other issues after that date.
  • This spring, Ms. Fiala said the Departments of Labor and Education plan to concurrently publish five Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to implement WIOA.  They include the following:
    1. An NPRM involving jointly (Labor and Education) administered activities including unified and combined state plans, performance, and aspects of the one-stop system. 
    2. An NPRM to implement the remaining provisions of Title I and III that are administered by the Department of Labor. 
    3. Three additional NPRM’s that involve Department of Education programs: These include an NPRM implementing Title II, Adult Education and Literacy and two NPRM’s implementing the Title IV, Amendments to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 of WIOA.
  • Both Ms. Fiala and Mr. Zuidema said the NPRM’s for WIOA are different than the normal regulatory process because they will allow the Departments of Labor and Education to ask questions and receive comments from all affected parties.  There will likely be a 30 to 60 day comment period that will be followed by some type of proposed regulations that will lead to the final regulations that are supposed to be published in January, 2016.   

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NASWA Meets with RespectAbility and Coalition of Other Partners

Last week, LMI Director Don Wehbey and Deputy Executive Director Bob Simoneau hosted a meeting with Jennifer Mizrahi, President of RespectAbility, and a coalition of other organizations, such as the National Association of Councils on Independent Living, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and Best Buddies. RespectAbility is "a national, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to empower people with disabilities and give them a united front to tackle tough issues like the lack of employment."

The meeting focused on exploring ways to improve employment outcomes for persons with disabilities. RespectAbility has prepared state-specific data templates on disability statistics for states and hopes to work with NASWA and other partners to better collaborate with governors, state workforce agencies, and local workforce boards to increase awareness and improvement to performance metrics for persons with disabilities. NASWA will be collecting and sharing the data templates with members to assist state workforce agencies with similar information.

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Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta Podcast on Implementing Workforce Programs for Students

This month, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta released an economic development podcast series entitled A Promising Approach: Improving Graduation Rates and Building a Better Workforce. The podcast features a discussion with national workforce development experts on the implementation of workforce programs that improve high school graduation rates and provide work skills for at risk-youth.

Mike Beatty, President and CEO of Great Promise Partnership, and Mike Wiggins, former Executive Vice-President of Human Resource at Southwire Company, discuss the model used to implement the cooperative education program, 12 for Life.

12 for Life is a cooperative education program supported by Southwire Company providing students with classroom instruction, on-the-job training, key work/life skills, mentoring, and employment opportunities. The program model incorporates public and private partnerships with local political leadership, a flexible school system, business community and faith-based community organizations.

To access the podcast’s transcript and audio MP3 file, visit the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s website. 

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JOLTS Reports Highest Job Openings in 14 Years

On Tuesday, January 13, 2015, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released their monthly Job Openings and Labor Turnover Summary (JOLTS) for the month of November 2014.  According to the BLS report, there were 5.0 million job openings in November, the most job opening since January 2001. The job openings rate was 3.4 percent. Job openings increased over the year for many industries, including professional and business services, health care and social assistance, and accommodation and food services.  In November, the hires rate decreased slightly from the previous month, decreasing to 3.6 percent. The separations rate also decreased from October to 3.3 percent. 

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State of the Union This Tuesday

On Tuesday, January 20 at 9pm ET, President Obama will deliver his sixth State of the Union Address.

If you plan on watching from home, the White House will be streaming an enhanced version of the speech on WhiteHouse.gov/SOTU that features graphics, data, and charts that help explain issues and policies the President is discussing alongside the remarks.

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UI Technical Training on Data Validation, BAM, and More...

The ITSC and USDOL announced the FY2015 Course Schedule for UI Technical Training for in-person courses on Data Validation, BAM, SUN System, and more.  The scope of this training is only for programs housed on the SUN server (UI PERFORMS). The BAM Investigator course has been modified to align better with the new peer reviews.  Please forward this announcement to any who may be interested in attending.

For complete course descriptions and to register for any of these courses, please visit the ITSC website at www.itsc.org.  Select UI Learning Center from the top menu bar and scroll down to the UI Learning Center link. Scroll to the bottom for registration links and complete course descriptions and agendas. For the direct link to the registration page, please click here. 

An ITSC member login is required for access.  If you need a member account or your password reset, please contact Stephen.Hanle@itsc.org.

Register today, keep in mind that space is limited for these courses.  These are in-person courses with no registration fee; however, your state will be responsible for any travel/lodging costs.  All courses start at 8:30AM on Tuesday (Monday is a travel day) and end on Fridays around 10:30AM for afternoon travel.

For more information about this training track, please contact Wanda Burth at wanda.burth@itsc.org or (202) 744-2911.

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NASWA's State Unemployment Insurance Tax Survey Available Online

NASWA’s State Unemployment Insurance Tax Survey 2014 is now available on the NASWA website.  NASWA completed its fifth annual survey of states on the status of their unemployment insurance (UI) financing systems. Originally intended to determine the amount and type of modifications to state UI tax mechanisms, the survey has evolved over the last five years, continuing to track tax changes, but also tracking changes to weekly benefit payments, duration, eligibility, methods for employers to file UI taxes and alternative sources of funding for repayment of Title XII advances and interest on loan balances. To read the full report, click here.

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Unemployment Insurance Initial Claims Increase, Continued Claims Decrease

The U.S. Department of Labor reported for the week ending January 10, 2015, seasonally adjusted unemployment insurance initial claims increased from the previous week's revised figure.

Seasonally adjusted initial claims increased by 19,000 to 316,000 from last week's revised figure of 297,000. The 4-week moving average was 298,000, an increase of 6,750 from the previous week's revised average of 291,250. The unadjusted initial claims level totaled 528,476 up 99,660 from the previous week, and down 6,490 from the level of 534,966 for a comparable week in 2014.

UI continued claims, seasonally adjusted, for the week ending January 3, 2015 were 2,424,000, down 51,000 from the previous week's revised figure. The 4-week moving average increased 11,500 to 2,414,500 from the prior week's revised figure of 2,403,000.

The total number of individuals claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending December 27, 2014, was 2,841,840, an increase of 435,146 from the prior week. Regular state continued claims increased by 431,319, and EB decreased by 3. During the week of December 27, 2014, continued claims for ex-federal employees stood at 18,634 up 2,106 from the prior week, and for newly discharged veteran, 24,969 up 1,447 from the prior week.

Initial claims exhibited a relative large increase this week which is traditional at the end of the Christmas-New Year holiday season. This seasonality can be shown on the chart below in comparison with a 4-week seasonally adjusted series. Comparable raw initial claims data for similar periods in the prior two years are for 2013, 557,424; 2014, 534,966; and for 2015, 528,476. Therefore, there is a slight year to year decrease but compatibly higher week to week figures for each year.

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Notices, Advisories and Reports

USDOL Directives & Releases

January 13, 2015:  ETA released Training and Employment Notice No. 17-14 sponsoring a study to help policymakers and program administrators understand the level of accessibility of American Job Centers (AJCs) for individuals with disabilities. The purpose is to aggregate data to capture a broad overview of the degree to which AJCs, on average, are accessible to individuals with disabilities.

January 9, 2015:  ETA released Unemployment Insurance Program Letter No. 02-09, Change 3 to inform states of recent updates to the guidance provided by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) for state unemployment insurance (UI) agencies using the Treasury Offset Program (TOP) to collect employer UI tax debt. 

Bureau of Labor Statistics Reports

January 16, 2015:  BLS released its monthly Real Earnings report for the month of December 2014.  Seasonally adjusted real average hourly earnings for all employees rose 0.1 percent from November to December.  This result stems from a 0.2 percent decrease in average hourly earnings combined with a 0.4 percent decrease in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U).

January 9, 2015:  BLS released its monthly Employment Situation Summary for the month of December 2014.  According to the BLS report, total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 252,000 in December, and the unemployment rate declined to 5.6 percent.  Job gains occurred in professional and business services, construction, food services and drinking places, health care, and manufacturing.

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For questions or comments, please contact NASWA Bulletin Editor Marc Katz at mkatz@naswa.org.