Program helps unemployed

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August 22, 2012

Program helps unemployed

Anonymous The Muskogee Phoenix Wed Aug 22, 2012, 11:02 PM CDT

— Muskogee County’s unemployment rate is lower than the national average and is down from June 2011.

Two thousand and fifty people were unemployed in Muskogee County — a rate of 6.4 percent — in June.

That’s down from 7.6 percent in June 2011.

That number also is lower than the national average of 8.2 percent.

Those numbers sound encouraging.

Unfortunately, Muskogee County is higher than the state average of 4.7 percent.

Muskogee County has the 12th highest rate of Oklahoma’s 77 counties.

More than half of those are long-term unemployed, says the executive director of the Eastern Workforce Investment Board.

“The long-term unemployed get discouraged,” said EWIB’s Nanette Robertson.

An EWIB project could offer help to both the unemployed and employers.

An on-the-job training program will reimburse up to 50 percent of a company’s costs for up to six month while the trainee is learning his job, says Connie Sharp, programs operation manager at EWIB.

EWIB officials say the program had a success rate of more than 90 percent — the trainees were hired on a permanent basis after training.

In the last group of OJT participants, 14 of 15 retained jobs.

That kind of success is why EWIB officials would like to expand the program.

Those are enviable results.

U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn said a report showed not enough funds were being used for direct client services.

Here’s an example of a program that deserves state and federal support.

Having people train for new work while they are eligible to collect unemployment benefits is the best alternative we have heard in a while.

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