WORKFORCE CONNECTIONS - Vol. 42

In This Issue:

State and Federal Policy Updates: Governor's FY24 Budget, Important Bills to Know About, Biden-Harris FY24 Budget, Federal Equity Audits, DOL Youth Employment Summit
MWA Updates: Racial Justice Resources and MWA Growing Equity Webinar Series Announcement, Save the Date WSG Jobs and Workforce Summit, New MWA Board Member
Member Updates: Sec. Jones visits MassHire Workforce Board Council, Farewell to Linda Rohrer of MassHire Merrimack Valley Career Center
News From Around the Sector: Jobs, funding, news and updates

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PUBLIC POLICY UPDATES

State Public Policy

Governor Healey Files Her First Budget

On March 1st the Healey-Driscoll Administration unveiled its FY24 budget proposal. According to a message filed with the proposal, H1 is a $55.5B investment in MA residents, municipalities, and the workforce to help build an economy and talent pipeline for employers to grow and succeed. The budget proposal represents a 4.1% increase over the FY23 originally adopted budget and estimates revenues of $1B from MA's new income surtax. You can read a Mass Taxpayers Foundation summary of the budget here and Mass Budget and Policy Center's summary here.

Several notable workforce and education investment increases include:

An increase in funding from $1M to $4.97M for Expanding Registered Apprenticeships
An increase in funding from $10M to $13M for Early College
An increase in funding from $600K to $850K for the Department of Economic Research

In addition to various targeted investments, it includes $20M for a new program, MassReconnect. This program, which Governor Healey highlighted in her campaign, would allow residents 25 and older who have completed high school or some college to receive an associate's degree or certificate at a community college at no cost. The MassReconnect program is modeled after programs in Tennessee and Michigan. It would cover the cost of tuition, fees, books, and supplies, as well as provide funding for career and wraparound support services. You can learn more about this proposal here.

Common Start Coalition Holds Briefing and Lobby Day

On March 22nd the Common Start Coalition held a legislative briefing and lobby day to advocate for its bills to expand access and affordability to quality early education and care. House Bill 489 and Senate Bill 301 would provide "the specific structure that is needed to deliver affordable care options for families; significantly better pay and benefits for early educators; a new, stable source of funding for providers; high-quality programs and services for children; and substantial relief for businesses and our economy." You can read media coverage of the briefing here.

A recent report from Boston Indicators and SkillWorks highlights the racial and economic justice imperative facing care workers and the care sector in Massachusetts. Click here to learn more.

YW Boston Promotes Gender and Racial Diversity on Public Boards and Commissions

The Parity on Board Coalition, led by YW Boston, is advocating for more diverse representation in membership, leadership, and governance across the Commonwealth's public boards and commissions. House Bill 4153 and Senate Bill 2029 would require public boards and commissions to file demographic data on their members annually with the Office of the Governor and for an annual report detailing the board composition data to be published.

You can read a bill summary fact sheet here.

Highlighting Legislation Impacting Employers, Job Seekers, and the MA Workforce System

Each month, MWA highlights legislation of interest to the greater workforce development community. We hope to educate readers about pending legislation, and in some instances, provide actionable steps to take for those who want to support the proposal and/or learn more. See below for this month's highlight on two important data related bills that MWA is supporting this session:

H.1862, An Act relative to workforce data accessibility

S.1187, An Act to make data on workforce development outcomes public and accessible

Sponsors: Representative Josh Cutler and Senator Patricia Jehlen

Bill Summary: This legislation would ensure timely access to anonymized wage data from the Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA) at a regional level so the publicly funded workforce development system can better understand and evaluate employment outcomes of the individuals that it serves. You can download a fact sheet about this legislation here.

H.530/S.343 An Act Establishing an Education-to-Career Data Center

Sponsors: Representative Kate Lipper-Garabedian, Representative Manny Cruz, and Senator Pavel Payano

Bill Summary: This legislation would establish and create a governance framework for the Massachusetts Education-to-Career Data System for the purpose of providing reliable and actionable information on education and workforce outcomes. You can download a fact sheet on the bill here.

January and February 2023 Unemployment Rates

Every March, the state and Bureau of Labor Statistics go back through the previous year's unemployment estimates and revise them based on other U.S. Census Bureau data sets that they are benchmarked against for improved data quality. This means that a lot of information comes out in March!

Revised unemployment rate for MA, December 2022: 3.7%
Revised unemployment rate for MA, January 2023: 3.5%
Unemployment rate for MA, February 2023: 3.7%
Unemployment rate for US, February 2023: 3.6%

From EOLWD's March 10th Press Release: This year’s annual year-end revisions and updated population controls from the U.S. Census Bureau resulted in changes to the labor force estimates from 2018 to 2022, with the most notable year-end revisions in 2021 and 2022. The year-end revisions showed the unemployment rates were lower, ranging from 0.1 to 0.8 percentage points, than previously published estimates for the months of May to December in 2021 and January to May in 2022. The largest downward year-end revision of 0.8 of a percentage point occurred in January and February 2022. In 2022, the unemployment rates for July to December were 0.2 to 0.4 percentage points higher than previously estimated. The year-end revised labor force participation rates from April 2021 to December 2022 were lower than previously published.

In February, the MA labor force participation rate increased by 0.2 of a percentage point over the month, to 65.0 percent, down 0.4 of a percentage point from the prior year (Feb. 2022). The labor force increased by 11,700 from January 2023. Since the beginning of the pandemic (April 2020), Massachusetts has gained 674,200 jobs. The largest over the year gains occurred in Professional, Scientific, and Business Services; Education and Health Services; and Leisure and Hospitality.

Click here to read the most recent state press release. Local unemployment estimates for February were released on 3/28. The most recent local press release can be found here.

Federal Public Policy

President Biden Releases FY24 Budget Proposal

Earlier this month, President Biden released his budget proposal for FY24. Click here for a comparison of the FY23 enacted levels with the FY24 budget proposals for WIOA and related workforce programs. The political realities and divides with the Administration and Congressional Republicans will make it very difficult to finalize spending levels for FY24. A long term/year long continuing resolution is the more likely outcome. Still, the budget is an opportunity for the Biden-Harris Administration to demonstrate its priorities.

While not proposing significant increases in WIOA, the budget proposes two new programs:

$15M for a Civilian Climate Corps (CCC) and
$200M for the Sectoral Employment through Career Training for Occupational Readiness (SECTOR) Program.

The new CCC program is intended to promote climate resilience and provide demonstration grants that focus on connecting participants to high quality jobs in the clean energy and climate mitigation sectors. The SECTOR Program would provide funds to support sector partnership models, as defined in WIOA, that are both industry-focused and worker-centered. These programs may not become reality through the budget process, but they will be areas the Biden-Harris Administration focuses on. For more analysis, click here for the National Skills Coalition's review of the budget proposal.

Assessment of Equity Action Plans

In late February, President Biden signed a second executive order focused on racial equity: EO14091 - Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities through the Federal Government. This builds off his initial executive order (EO13985) that called for Equity Action Plans (EAP) from every federal agency. PolicyLink did a review of the first 30 EAPs submitted and offers an analysis of strengths and areas of improvement. Click here to view their analysis.

DOL Youth Employment Works Summit

Before leaving office, Secretary Walsh held the Youth Employment Works Summit on March 9th. At the summit, the Department of Labor put forth a strategy focusing on delivering a "no wrong door" youth workforce system, increased public and private commitments to youth and young adult career pathways, and offering guaranteed paid work experiences. More information on the strategy including a recording of the summit can be found here.

MWA UPDATES

Racial Justice in Workforce Development Resources

MWA is following the conversation among the workforce development and related communities about how racism and white supremacy influence the field and practice of workforce development. We will continue to use this newsletter to share relevant tools, articles, webinars and resources to support the workforce development community.

MWA Growing Equity Webinar Series - Join us for our upcoming webinar series! Links to register below:

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Save the Date!

WSG Jobs and Workforce Summit

2023 MWA Growing Equity Webinar Series:

Building a More Inclusive and Just Workforce System

Join MWA for a four part virtual series starting in April to help us build a more inclusive and just workforce system. MWA believes we have a role to play in developing a more equitable and just workforce development system in Massachusetts. In this second year of our Growing Equity webinar series, we will host 4 virtual sessions between April and July. While we hope participants will join us for all of the sessions, there is no requirement to do so.

April 19th - Empowering Workers through the Workforce System
May 17th - Using Human Centered Design to (Re)Design our Services, Systems, and Structures
June 22 - The State Budget: A Policy Tool for Advancing Racial Justice
July 20th - Participant Debrief - Where do we go from here? (registration to come)

Goals of the Growing Equity Series:

Participants learn how workers can benefit from education about their rights in the workplace and why worker voice matters.
Participants learn more about the mindset and process of human-centered design, understand the impact it can have on workforce service delivery via case studies, and consider redesigning services within their own organizations.
Participants understand the state budget process, how decisions on funding are made, particularly in relation to workforce development, and why the state budget can be considered a moral document.
Participants come away with actionable steps for their organizations and some vision and input into how MWA can continue to advance this work.

MWA Welcomes New Board Member, Lisa Gurgone, of Mystic Valley Elder Services

MWA is pleased to welcome Lisa Gurgone, Chief Executive Officer of Mystic Valley Elder Services (MVES), to our Board of Directors. MVES is an organization designated by the MA Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA) to serve as the Aging Services Access Point (ASAP) and Area Agency on Aging (AAA) for older adults and people with disabilities who live in 11 cities and towns in Metro North. MVES is a not for profit organization with an annual budget of over $90 million and a workforce of approximately 330 individuals. Prior to joining MVES in 2022, Gurgone served as Executive Director of Mass Home Care, the statewide trade association representing the Commonwealth’s network of the 27 ASAPs and AAAs. She also served as the Executive Director of the Home Care Aide Council for over 15 years. Gurgone began her career in state government working in positions within the Legislature, the Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, and the Office of Attorney General. Welcome Lisa!

Secretary Jones Joins MWA Workforce Board Council

Earlier this month, Secretary Lauren Jones and Undersecretary Jenn James joined the MWA Workforce Board Council, a regular meeting of the 16 MassHire Workforce Board Directors from across Massachusetts. Secretary Jones shared the Healey-Driscoll Administration overarching priorities of accountability, equity, and competitiveness. She also took time to hear and learn from each region about the specific labor market challenges they face and creative strategies for reaching job seekers and working with employers that are being implemented. We look forward to continuing this conversation with the Secretary and her team.

Local MassHire Hello's and Goodbye's

On March 31st, Linda Rohrer, Executive Director of the MassHire Merrimack Valley Career Center, will retire after 40 years of devoted service and commitment to workforce development, including the past 6 years working for MassHire at the Career Center at Northern Essex Community College. James Henderson, previously of Northern Essex Community Action Programs, will be the new Executive Director. We thank Linda for her service and partnership, and welcome James to the MassHire team! You can read the press release about the transition here.

Jim Oliveira, CEO of MassHire Greater New Bedford Workforce Board and MWA Board Member and Treasurer, will retire on March 31st, as well. To view a summary of Jim's local legacy, click here. Cheers to Jim!

NEWS FROM AROUND THE SECTOR

There are so many job postings and funding announcements, we moved our News from Around the Sector section to our website, where you can access the news, jobs, funding announcements and more anytime throughout the month. Go to: www.massworkforce.com/around-the-sector.

Here is a sample of the events, funding opportunities, jobs, and more posted on our website:

Job Opportunity: JVS Boston is hiring a Young Adult Career Center Program Manager. Click here to learn more and apply.
Job Opportunity: The Benjamin Franklin Cummings Institute of Technology is hiring a Strategic Partnerships Assistant Director. Click here to learn more and apply.
In Person Event: April 25th Wellness Reimagined - Employer Forum with the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce. Click here to learn more and register.
Funding Opportunity: MacKenzie Scott's Yield Giving invites proposals of $1M for 250 organizations across the country in its inaugural open call. Yield Giving seeks community-led, community-focused organizations with the explicit purpose of advancing the voices and opportunities of individuals and families of meager or modest means, and groups who have met with discrimination and other systemic obstacles. Click here to learn more and apply.