Rueters: Georgia jobs program cited by Obama has big flaws

[Patricia M. McBride]

 More info on the Georgia jobs program Obama referred to in his "campaign" speech the other night. 

 

By Matthew Bigg

ATLANTA | Fri Sep 9, 2011 7:46am EDT

ATLANTA (Reuters) - 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.

Obama told Congress on Thursday in a major speech on jobs that the state-run Georgia Work$ initiative, along with other measures, would help people unemployed for more than six months and he stressed that Republican leaders in Congress supported it.

"We have to do more to help the long-term unemployed in their search for work," Obama said. Fear the U.S. economy could slip back into recession is hurting the Democratic president's chances of re-election in 2012.

"This jobs plan builds on a program in Georgia that several Republican leaders have highlighted where people who collect unemployment insurance participate in temporary work as a way to build their skills while they look for a permanent job," Obama told Congress.

But 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 than 30,000 people benefited from the program in the past, but in its current form, Georgia Work$ is tiny. Only 12 unemployed people signed up in August and 92 have done so since February, according to state Department of Labor statistics.

The voluntary program places unemployed people with firms for eight weeks of job training similar to an internship. Participants receive unemployment insurance plus a small stipend and have the chance of a job at the end of it.

Butler said the program he inherited in January was virtually bankrupt and "fraught with problems," so he is surprised it has attracted so much national attention.

Obama gave no details of how the program would be applied at a national level and Butler said his office had had no contact with the White House.

"We think that the foundation (idea) has merit but we don't believe that the program we have right now is as effective as it could be and it needs a lot of tweaking," Butler said.

"I don't really like the idea of federalizing this program.

.... We would like to make some changes to it and we would like to stay in control of it and not have it mandated from Washington," Butler said in reaction to the speech.

Butler said it was just one tool to fight unemployment in Georgia, which stood at 10.1 percent in July and has exceeded the U.S. average for the past 48 months. Losses in manufacturing, construction and finance have been severe.

read more here:  http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/09/us-obama-jobs-georgia-idU...