State officials are expanding their effort to tackle Hawaii’s long-term unemployment problem with a $1.8 million federal grant that will provide job training for those who have been out of work for 27 weeks or longer.

The funding, provided through the Workforce Investment Act Dislocated Worker Program, will be used to reimburse Hawaii employers for up to 90 percent of the wages they pay workers they hire and train, officials from the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations announced Tuesday.

The money will enable participating employers to hire about 200 workers under the six-month program, which has a high success rate, according to the DLIR. About 98 percent of the workers who get on-the-job training through the program remain with the employer at the end of the six months, department officials said.

Although Hawaii’s strengthening job market has driven down the unemployment rate significantly since the 2008-2009 recession, there is still a group of people who have not been able to find work for a variety of reasons, including the fact that some companies opted not to refill positions they had left open during the economic downturn.

The average length of time that unemployed workers in Hawaii receive jobless benefits has declined over the past few years but remains above the long-term trend. Unemployed workers on average currently collect benefits for nearly 18 weeks. That compares with a high of about 20 weeks in 2010, and an average of about 15 weeks during the past 40 years, according to DLIR data.

Anyone who’s still struggling to find a work at this stage of an economic recovery needs to seriously think about upgrading their job skills if they want to get hired, said Beth Busch, executive director of the Job Quest job fair.

“We have a skills gap in which many of those who are unemployed don’t have the skills employers are looking for,” she said. “We just don’t have as broad a range of industries in Hawaii, which makes branching out and getting training even more important here. People need to open their minds. They need to know that some jobs are never coming back.”

Under the Dislocated Worker program, priority will be given to several groups of unemployed,
including those who have exhausted their unemployment benefits and are unlikely to return to the same job or industry, DLIR officials said.

In addition, the program is aimed at anyone who was self-employed that became unemployed as a result of deteriorating economic conditions or a natural disaster. Also targeted are homemakers who were relying on the income of another family member but are no longer receiving that support.

DLIR officials said employers and workers interested in participating in the program should contact one of the department’s 11 One-Stop Centers around the state. More information is available at labor.hawaii.gov/wdd/onestop.