Georgia Works Not Working; Just Twelve Applicants in August [View All]

[Donnachaidh]

http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/09/12/georgia-works-not-working-just-twelve-applicants-in-august/

YMMV, but for me the worst element of the mostly-fine American Jobs Act is the plan modeled on Georgia Works, the job training program for the long-term unemployed. Businesses get free labor (let’s face it, there’s not a whole lot of “training” that goes into the perfunctory data entry or office slug jobs that would likely be filled here), and the worker gets to show up without the hope of a job at the end. It may be a foot in the door with a particular company, or it may be a two-month distraction from a deeper job search, with nothing to show for it at the end. It’s just an unpaid internship in the end, and if companies are getting away with that, why wouldn’t they just cycle through another round of unpaid interns under the guise of “training” rather than make a hire?

The fact that the labor commissioner in Georgia running the program doesn’t think it can be scaled up is pretty damning, I’d say:

A jobs program in the Southern state of Georgia, cited in President Barack Obama’s plan to fight unemployment, needs big fixes and would not work as a federal initiative, says the official who runs it <...>

Georgia Work$ is being restructured to overcome significant flaws. Even within the state, it is seen as “not a marquee program,” said state Labor Commissioner Mark Butler, the Republican elected official who oversees it.

More at the link --