Problems Faced by the Long-Term Unemployed
For the long-term unemployed, finding a living-wage job has long been particularly problematic. The truism that the unemployed must be unemployable — ignoring, as it does, the variability of circumstance — continues to be a significant barrier for job seekers not recently active in the job market. Particularly alarming is the fact that “recently nonemployed applicants with no relevant experience are more likely to be invited to an interview than those with experience who have been nonemployed for more than six months,” as noted by Rand Ghayad.
A recent publication by the Executive Office of the President, entitled Addressing the Negative Cycle of Long-Term Unemployment, explores the extent to which these barriers remain critical after the Great Recession. While the private sector has been experiencing healthy growth (2.2 million jobs added in 2013, with unemployment falling to pre-recession levels), the current long-term unemployment rate is a staggering 2.5%, more than double the pre-recession rate of 1%. This amounts to 3.9 million Americans unemployed for more than 27 weeks. Of these, roughly half report that they have been searching for jobs for 52 weeks or more.
Workforce Development Strategies and Solutions
In the face of these numbers, workforce development agencies continue to champion solutions to alleviate the problem. In Los Angeles, the MCS Healthworks Initiative (recipient of a $5 Million H1-B Grant by the US Department of Labor), developed a strategy meant to target two of the principal barriers to employment for the long-term unemployed: lack of educational training/credentials and employer reticence. Focused upon the healthcare industry in Los Angeles, MCS brought together a consortium of stakeholders to create customized training programs combining classroom instruction with on-the-job training; these result in industry-recognized credentials as well as living-wage employment in the healthcare field, one of the fastest growing in Los Angeles.
Currently the only certified Healthcare Intermediary in Los Angeles, MCS recognized quickly the need to connect employers with training providers as a means to serve the long-term unemployed. “The key,” says Joan Samuels, Director of Corporate and Business Development, “is to reach out to healthcare employers and reassure them that, with the assistance of our community college and WorkSource partners, they will receive qualified candidates ready and willing to perform excellently in their new positions.” Each candidate is specifically matched to the job, and, upon completing classroom instruction enters On-the-Job Training. Much like with classroom instruction, On-the-Job Training follows a prescribed curriculum that ensures a thorough grounding in every aspect of the candidate’s new job.
Participants are granted industry-accredited degrees and certifications as they progress through the program, including state licenses and credentials. “Because we want to ensure that candidates remain competitive across the healthcare field, we have made stackable credentials a central component of the program, allowing participants to enter a career and not just a job,” says Philip Starr, MCS Executive Director.
Results
In the last three years, the MCS Healthworks Program has placed over 670 long-term unemployed Los Angeles residents into viable jobs in healthcare, at an average starting wage of $17.87 per hour. For these accomplishments, MCS was one of thirteen organizations nationwide cited in the White House Report as ‘key intermediaries helping to connect the long-term unemployed to work.’