- Job training urged for ex-convicts in New Orleans, By Katie Urbaszewski, April 29, 2010, New Orleans Times-Picayune: “The Home Builders Institute isn’t satisfied with just the 400 New Orleanians — some young adults in low-income families and some residents from Central City housing projects — they’ve trained to find jobs in the construction industry and now wants to create a similar career training program for those recently released from prison. That was the topic of the institute’s meeting with the Rebuilding a Better New Orleans advisory council Wednesday, their fifth meeting to hear community input as the life of the institute’s grant nears its last month and they search for new funding. Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the nation, 48 percent above the national average, said Roger Grissom, New Orleans program development manager of the Home Builders Institute. One out of every 55 Louisiana residents is behind bars, according to a study of 2007 U.S. Census data by the Pew Center for the States…”
- Is state jobs program luring employers?, By Laylan Copelin, April 26, 2010, Austin American-Statesman: “Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is crisscrossing the state to promote his plan that pays employers with state tax dollars to hire unemployed Texans. He touts it as a way for the state to save money by getting people off unemployment and jump-starting a Texas economy that many fear could be in a long, slow recovery. ‘We’ve got to grow this locomotive called the Texas economy,’ Dewhurst said in February as he kicked off the $15 million program. He already is talking about extending the nascent program during next year’s legislative session, and the Texas Workforce Commission is trying to persuade federal officials to give it $50 million in stimulus money to triple the program’s size. The program pays employers $2,000 for each unemployed person they hire and retain for at least four months. As of Friday, 682 Texans had been hired by 421 employers statewide. In many instances, however, employers say the state is paying them to do what they would be doing anyway: filling crucial vacancies, expanding only when business conditions warrant or, in the case of high-turnover industries such as call centers, filling their constant roster of openings…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty