The Crisis of Long Term unemployment: What can be done?

I had the honor on May 6th to present at a conference at MIT in Boston and wanted to share with eveeryone who is interested in the Long term Unemployment crisis some of the takeaways from this event about the National Crisis of Long-Term Unemployment that lacks the level of awareness it needs to be solved. Unemployment remains the top concern of Americans in all recent polls, according to Gallup http://www.gallup.com/poll/167450/unemployment-rises-top-problem.aspx  Feb 17,2014 

 Led by Asst. Professor Offer Sharone, (MIT andhttp://instituteforcareertransitions.org (ICT) Michelle Rosin (ICT) Emily Allen (AARP-Foundation) and Katy Bertman ( MIT), this conference brought together more than 250 highly respected leaders and professionals working in this area towards solutions. The event featured speakers from academia, government, and industry. . 
"It's a moral issue," said Sharone, an assistant professor of work and employment research. "It's these individuals who we, as a society, are asking to pay the price, with their life savings, their homes. Many of them come to fear that something is wrong with them." 

Comments from some key speakers: "We need a sense of urgency for this particular problem, long-term unemployment, in this country," said Eric M. Seleznow, acting assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Labor, in the conference's keynote talk. 

Rachel Kaprielian: "We know that we need to get people back in a job quickly to avoid long-term unemployment and avoid the hiring bias this group is experiencing." 

Massachusetts is using DOL funding in the re-employment assistance program to help claimants start working on getting back to work on day one. More than 50,000 UI claimants participated in REA programs during the last two years. Their average length of unemployment was 20 weeks. Jennifer James presented on a new initiative driven by the MA Governor and Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. 

"Even in the best educated state in the nation, we see just under 50% of our job seekers at One Stop Career Centers walking in the door with a high school diploma or less. We went looking for new tools to expand our system's capacity to address basic reading, math and career readiness skills of our customers. This summer, we are launching a new Career Readiness Initiative to create 100 Career Readiness Learning Labs across the state as well as testing sites to provide job seekers with a National Career Readiness Certificate." 

Ben Siegel's presentation highlights were: * DOL currently has $1 billion in open grant competitions to train and place Americans into jobs. $300 million of these funds are directly focused on serving the long-term unemployed, including the Ready to Work Partnership grant and Job-Driven National Emergency Grants. * While it is critical that we focus our efforts on addressing the challenges facing the current group of long-term unemployed workers we must also make sure to continue that shorter term unemployed workers don't fall into long term unemployment. That's why the Department of Labor has invested in proven programs like the Reemployment Eligibility Assessment/Reemployment Services and short-time compensation or work sharing. These "LTU prevention" programs help workers get back to work quickly or remain on the job. * Job clubs like Neighbors-helping-Neighbors have played an important role in helping the long-term unemployed rebuild their confidence, connect with new contacts and employers, and reestablish their careers. 

Professor Carl E. Van Horn closed his presentation with the following suggestions: 
 · Resist rush to judge "success" or "failure" of initiatives 
· Increase funding for rigorous, independent research on performance and impacts 
· Support workforce data quality initiatives and use of administrative data · Fund research on predictive analytics and application of behavioral science principles in the design and administration of programs 
· Establish "What Works Clearinghouse" ( e.g. Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education) 

Indeed, the lack of well-paying permanent jobs remains the biggest issue surrounding long-term unemployment. Strategies to level the job-search playing field for the long-term unemployed may be vital, but as Boston College Professor David Blustein noted in the day's final talk, there is no substitute for abundant opportunity. "We need to create work for people so they can rebuild their shattered lives," Blustein said. 

Alexandra LeBlanc, an experienced-hire recruiter for a Big 4 firm who was an attendee said, "The dialogue started at the conference really emphasized the need for stronger communication among job seekers, counselors, and recruiters. Candidates have a right to know what recruiters evaluate when they look at a resume or perform an interview, why they were or were not chosen to move forward, and given a reasonable timeframe for feedback. Until we as recruiters can speak honestly with candidates and counselors about the recruiting process, there will continue to be unnecessary stress on everyone's part. This issue will not be solved overnight, but clearer, more frequent communication will at least alleviate some of the frustration." 

 Joe Carbone expressed the feelings of most of the participants who were there, "I don't know when I enjoyed a conference as much as this one. Just looking at the faces and expressions of the participants as they listened to ideas and opinions was inspiring. They were genuinely connected to the conversation. My commendations to everyone who helped pull this every informative event together." 

 Ofer Sharone shared his reflections of the conference with me and said, "I feel more hopeful after hearing about the different programs including Neighbors-helping-Neighbors that are making a real difference in supporting the LTU, and seeing that 250 people came to this conference to figure out how to make more progress on the LTU crisis." 

 Some of my takeaways of the conference: As one hat i wear being a Jobs Advocate "Job creation is needed, there are not enough jobs for those who are ready and qualified to work." 

The unemployment and underemployment has created an economy that is not healthy as many who spin the truth would like to believe. I continue to discover that there are still a lot Americans, elected officials and media who are not properly informed and aware of how serious the unemployment crisis is. 

There is a need for organizations and groups in this area to collaborate and work together sharing information, resources and finding solutions for the Long Term Unemployed candidates. And not work alone in separate "bubbles" as Ofer Sharone called it. 

Need to educated all levels of Employers in the value of the LTU candidates and understand better how their focus on short term profits and using capital to replace jobs is compounding this problem. 

 Many of the long term unemployed are unfairly being portrayed as lacking skills and not job ready to be able to fill the job openings that supposedly exist. HB1 visas have been used to fill many jobs in tech that is really more about reducing the costs of these jobs from $50 to $25 dollars an hour. 

 1.6 million returning decommissioned Veterans will be coming back looking for jobs in the private sector also over the next four years. 

The good news is there are many working to find solutions and to help identify issues that our policy makers need to understand and address and much of this cannot be solved by individual efforts by the unemployed but need the support and help of all these stakeholders working together to create solutions. 

The presentation program included: Support Organizations on the Frontlines * Platforms to Employment http://www.platformtoemployment.com : Joe Carbone (Founder and President) 

 * MA One Stop System's<http://www.mass.gov/lwd> New Initiative: Jennifer James, MA Undersecretary for Workforce Development * 

 * Neighbors-helping-Neighbors USA<http://www.nhnusa.org/>: John R. Fugazzie (Founder and President) 

 * Operation Able Boston<http://www.operationable.net/>: Joan Cirillo (President & CEO) 

 * Jewish Vocational Services of Boston<http://www.jvs-boston.org/>: Jerry Rubin (President and CEO) Policymakers, Policy Directions and Key Actors 

 * U.S. Department of Labor<http://www.dol.gov/> Eric M. Seleznow - US Assistant Secretary of Labor 

 * MA Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development<http://www.mass.gov/governor/administration/cabinet/labor>: Rachel Kaprielian 

 * U..S Department of Labor Ben Seigel Sr. Policy Advisor, Office of the Assistant Secretary Employment & Training<http://www.doleta.gov/> 

 * Mass General Hospital<http://www.massgeneral.org/careers/viewall.aspx>, Director of Human Resources: Steven Taranto 

 * AARP-Foundation<http://www.aarp.org/aarp-foundation>: Emily Allen 

* National Employment Law Project<http://www.nelp.org/>: George Wentworth Research on Long Term Unemployment 

 * Carl E. Van Horn, Ph.D. Professor of Public Policy and Director, John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development<http://www.heldrich.rutgers.edu/> (Rutgers ):[Research on Policies for Supporting the Long Term Unemployed] 


 * Rand Ghayad (Boston Federal Reserve/Northeastern University): [The Jobless Trap] 

 * Mary Gatta (author: All I Want is a Job: Unemployed Women Navigating the Public Workforce System) 

 * David Blustein (Boston College)<http://www.bc.edu/content/bc/schools/lsoe/facultystaff/faculty/blustein.html>: [ A Critical Perspective on Contemporary Unemployment Policy and Support Practices] 

Thanks to the sponsors who made this event possible: MITSloan, AARP-Foundation<http://www.aarp.org/aarp-foundation>, Institute for Career Transitions (ICT)<http://instituteforcareertransitions.org/> and Institute for Work & Employment Research (IWER).<http://mitsloan.mit.edu/group/iwer/> 

Unemployment Crisis<http://neighbors-helping-neighbors.com/unemployment-crisis.html> 

 MIT conference recap page on NhN<http://neighbors-helping-neighbors.com/mit-conference-on-long-term-unemployed.html> 

 Smart Job Hunting America<http://www.smartjobhunting.net/> 

Jobs411.org<http://www.jobs411.org/>