Long-term jobless get needed boost

The Hawaii economy appears to have bounced back and has shown increasing resilience since the Great Recession over the past five years, but there remains a particularly stubborn problem for the long-term unemployed. These are people who often are walking the economic tightrope without a safety net, given that most have exhausted their unemployment insurance benefits.

For many of these prospective workers and their would-be employers, the problem is not the lack of advertised openings but the mismatch between the job applicants and the skills required for the available posts.

The recent infusion of federal funds into the Workforce Investment Act Dislocated Worker Program represents a much-needed tool to help narrow this gap.

The funding, a $1.8 million competitive grant to be administered by the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, will enable participating employers to hire about 200 workers for six months.

The companies are reimbursed for up to 90 percent of the wages they pay (the larger employers may get only a 50 percent subsidy, on the assumption that they are more able to underwrite the costs). In exchange, the employers train the workers, who may be changing careers and need to broaden their skills in new areas.

DLIR officials put the success rate at 98 percent, meaning that most of Hawaii program participants in past years have retained their employment, either with their temporary employers or at other workplaces where they shopped their new skills.

That should give renewed hope to disheartened job-seekers and encourage more signups from employers, who could use this federal support to reduce the risk of making a new hire. Employers and workers interested in participating can contact one of the state’s One-Stop Centers, or go online for more information (labor.hawaii.gov/ wdd/onestop).

Over the course of the six months, employers have the opportunity to evaluate whether the worker would be a good fit with existing staff before making any permanent commitment.

Some employers report disappointing experiences with the long-term unemployed, who may lack the ability to present themselves as a potential employee with good work habits, or the willingness to alter their career track. There’s little an employer, or a program meant to train people in technical skills, can do to erase a deficit that’s the worker’s own responsibility.

But for many of the long-term unemployed, this is not the case. The missing component in the job marketplace for them is having a second chance to prove themselves.

Hawaii’s unemployment rate has dropped considerably since the depths of the recession in 2008-2009; at 4.5 percent, it’s down to where it was before the economic meltdown of 2008 that precipitated the shedding of millions of jobs nationwide.

However, some people still find themselves sidelined. There may have been job consolidation in their area of expertise. It may be because of their age or because the fact of their long-term joblessness has branded them as unemployable. Employers, who must weigh increasing costs of pay and benefits, do face difficult hiring decisions, but this has yielded an unfortunate loss of experienced workers.

With adequate screening by the state agency, the Dislocated Worker Program can help to reclaim some of this lost potential for the workforce, and help many otherwise discouraged people to rebuild a productive life.