Issue Position: New Skills for New Jobs Act

Issue Position

At a time when millions of Americans are unemployed and looking for work, we also have businesses struggling to find workers to fill new jobs in high-growth industries like advanced manufacturing, construction, finance, and health care. A report by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute found that nearly 600,000 jobs nationally were currently unfilled because companies could not find qualified workers.

This skills gap is making it harder for our economy to recover and hurts our country's overall economic competitiveness. Other countries are investing heavily to be leaders in these fast-growing sectors, making it even more urgent that workers are able to connect with the training necessary to work at new jobs in these fields.

A Michigan Success Story

Senator Stabenow's New Skills for New Jobs Act builds on successful efforts in Michigan, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and North Dakota to help community colleges partner with local businesses to provide training for new jobs. These efforts have a proven track record of success: in Michigan, 44 local partnerships have been established to train nearly 10,000 workers for these high-skill jobs.

Here's how Michigan's existing job training program works: an employer chooses whom they want to hire for a new job and then partners with the community college to provide the necessary training. The state then transfers the individual's new state income tax payments to the community college to pay for the cost of the worker's training. Only good paying new jobs qualify.

Last year alone, these partnerships were responsible for $76 million in additional wages and salaries for Michigan workers. By giving employees the skills they need to be competitive in these growing industries, their higher earnings have a ripple effect throughout the economy. Home sales and consumer product sales increased, leading to higher property tax and sales tax revenues. The program's entire cost was offset by this new tax revenue.

College-Business Partnerships Mean New Jobs for Workers, a Skilled Workforce for Business

The New Skills for New Jobs Act provides a federal match equal to the state training reimbursement from programs like the Michigan New Jobs Training program. The federal government will provide reimbursement to the community college every quarter. By matching the state contribution generated from the new worker's income tax payments, the federal initiative will repay the community college more quickly and dramatically increase the number of eligible companies and workers that can participate.

Senator Stabenow's bill has the support of leading business and educational groups, including the Michigan Community College Association, UAW, Detroit Regional Chamber, Michigan Works! Association, Michigan Agri-Business Association, Small Business Majority, Michigan College Access Network, MichBIO, Health Care Association of Michigan, Next Energy, American Association of Community Colleges, and the Blue Green Alliance.

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