R.I. DLT working harder to re-employ the jobless

Although the R.I. Department of Labor and Training is more commonly known for delivering unemployment benefits than placing people in jobs, expanded and continuing programming targeted to help people find work – along with two policy changes – are expected to help move those who are without a job off the unemployment rolls sooner, Director Charles J. Fogarty said.
“We want to be the ‘Re-employment Department.’ It’s not just a change of words; it’s a change of mindset,” Fogarty said.
A key program, Re-employment and Eligibility Assessment, is being expanded with a $701,363 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. The funding will enable the DLT’s career center counselors to assist an additional 3,409 participants, or on average 16 per center, in Providence, West Warwick and Woonsocket, while adding services in the Wakefield section of South Kingstown through March of 2015.
The REA program is the only one for which Fogarty could provide statistics, but that data shows that Rhode Island REA participants re-enter the workforce faster and collect nearly $300 less per beneficiary in Unemployment Insurance benefits than jobless individuals who are not in the program.
As a result of the additional funding and expansion of services, Fogarty said he expects that percentage to increase as 11,500 new participants use REA services this year. Still, more participants does not necessarily mean more jobs.
“There’s no silver bullet,” Fogarty told Providence Business News, “no one thing that is going to be the solution to get people back working. But there are tools they need to see.”
Starting Sept. 1, every individual who files a claim for unemployment compensation will be required to post a resume on the DLT web portal, www.EmployRI.org, where people filing claims already have that option. At 7.9 percent for June, Rhode Island’s unemployment rate has dropped in recent months but is tied for highest in the nation. “It’s to get people in the mindset that, when you are unemployed, it really is a full-time job, and the sooner you start that [search], the better off you’ll be,” said Fogarty.
Rick Brooks, executive director of the Governor’s Workforce Board, which works with DLT to align services, said the resume requirement will uphold the DLT’s mission while enhancing the potential to match the unemployed with jobs.
“That’s a very tangible step to match job seekers with job vacancies,” Brooks said.
Another measure that DLT will begin in the next few weeks is sending letters to the long-term unemployed who have been collecting benefits for 16 weeks, alerting them that their benefits will be expiring in 10 weeks or less. The letter also will inform them about programs and services, including the four netWORKri One-Stop Career Centers that can help them find work, Fogarty said.
Helping unemployed people start their own businesses is the goal of another continuing program, Self Employment Assistance, which began in the fall of 2013. The Center for Women and Enterprise is a partner.
So far, 99 people have graduated with business plans after three weeks of classroom training and six weeks of mentoring, and of those, 25 have started new businesses, he said.
Maureen Saotome, a program participant, is in the process of launching her new business, Fresh I Design, from her home office in Warren. She was laid off last September from her three-year stint as an art director at Hasbro Inc., she said. Saotome applied to the SEA program in the spring, got accepted, and proceeded to develop a company identity and a business plan. Her business is focused on building logos, branding and package design for toy and food companies.
Launching a business without the assistance would have been daunting, she said.
DLT also continues to develop relationships with a variety of different employers, some directly, and others through programming, said Michael Healey, DLT’s chief public affairs officer. One firm with a direct connection to the agency is Aspen Aerogels, which is headquartered in Northborough, Mass., but has a manufacturing plant in East Providence, and makes insulation.
In the spring of 2012, Senior Staffing Specialist Margie Mosher contacted DLT about Aspen Aerogels’ need to hire up to 25 people for production work. DLT screened possible hires, and the company temporarily hired 28 people, of whom eight are now permanently employed there. Others have continued in long-term temporary positions, Mosher said.
“We would not have found as many high qualified people in the time frames we needed them if not for the DLT,” Mosher said of the DLT’s involvement in hiring.
The DLT is also piloting a workforce readiness training program with several partners called “Workforce on Ramp” that is part of a three-year, $2.7 million federal Workforce Innovation grant. The grant, which has one more year, is geared not only toward the long-term unemployed but those with low literacy levels, or who have never been employed. •

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  1. Well people….some (little) good news….if you go to http://www.bls.gov/lau/stalt.htm you will see that, at Level U6, we’ve (RI) have gone down
    a little from last time; FIFTEEN POINT ONE PERCENT (15.1%) versus FIFTEEN
    POINT THREE PER CENT (15.3%) the last time…(April of 2014)…..( Modification
    date on BLS website is INCORRECT…should read JULY 25, 2014)…..now California
    and Nevada are TIED for the bottom/last place, with Arizona coming in right behind
    them and RI next in line….