Retraining Program In Washington Gets Lukewarm Review
Washington's just-ended program to retrain displaced workers has received a so-so report card from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee.</br></br>The eight-year-old program, which gave extra unemployment-insurance payments to laid-off timber and other displaced workers who enrolled in job-retraining courses, had "some success, but the success has been mixed," the committee's report said.</br></br>The report didn't voice an opinion on whether the Legislature should have continued the program, in which the state paid about $150 million in benefits to some 14,000 laid-off workers enrolled over the years. Lawmakers didn't get around to voting on the question during the 1999 session because they -- and business and union interests -- couldn't resolve their differences over a proposal to keep the program going and expand it to ex-aerospace employees.</br></br>But the report did suggest that if it had to expire, now was a good time. "Given the state's improved employment picture," it said, ending the program now "would not have the same potential for an adverse effect" as it would have some years ago.</br></br>According to the report, while most participants did start new careers after finishing their schooling, many landed jobs paying less than what they earned before they were laid off. Those who took the highest concentrations of technically oriented classes, from health and trade courses to science and math classes, ended up earning the highest salaries among the participants. The study also found that in many cases the extension of unemployment payments to workers, and not retraining classes, contributed to higher income.