Well, look at this, on this first business day since the Obama
administration rushed literally billions more taxpayer/borrowed
dollars out the door to Solyndra-style ‘green jobs’ schemes, by
which I mean politically selected projects to create
market-unworthy goods or projects at spectacularly high per-job —
that’s per-temporary-job — cost of hundreds of
thousands of dollars. After all, deadlines must be met when a
politician and bureaucrat’s window to spend other peoples’ money is
what expires.
The Department of Labor has some disturbing, if not at all
surprising, conclusions about ‘green job’ training schemes, which
also were recipients of massive stimulus booty, if absurdly and
suspiciously designed to a) do the jobs that unions used to put
their dues to, before the current arrangement to put them to
politicians instead, and b) to train potential workers in fields
that don’t and won’t exist or else for the highly specialized tasks
of retraining to install low-flo shower heads and toilets instead
of the real kind.
Really. Hey, remember, Obama promised this when he said in a
campaign stump speech in College Park, Maryland, that “We will hire
young people who don’t have a trade and give them a trade making
homes more energy efficient, insulating homes, changing light
bulbs…”. Cue South Park parody, “We didn’t listen!”
The summary is available
here, the full report
here.
Low-lights include that, “of the $500 million provided, ETA
retained $9.9 million for services such as program administration
and technical assistance, and awarded $490.1 million as follows:
$435.4 million for three training programs, $48.9 million for labor
market information, and $5.8 million to develop
capacity.”
“Grantees have reported expending $162.8 million (33 percent) of
the amounts awarded, with about 73 percent of the grant time having
elapsed” — what, a deadline? I smell a rush coming on! — “As of
June 30, 2011, $327.3 million remained unexpended. Moreover, the
rate of training grant expenditures for the most recent period has
decreased.” Yep.
Limited Performance Targets Achieved: ETA and grantees have
reported achieving limited performance targets for serving and
placing workers. Grantees have reported serving 52,762
(42 percent) of the targeted 124,893 participants with 61
percent of training grant periods having elapsed, and have
reported placing 8,035 participants (10 percent) into
employment out of the target of 79,854 participants 17 months
after the grants were awarded.
Of the 52,762 participants served, grantees reported that 20,818
(39 percent) were individuals who already have jobs and
enrolled in training in order to retain their jobs, obtain new
work, or otherwise upgrade their skills.
In addition, … grantees have expressed concerns that jobs have
not materialized and that job placements have been fewer than
expected for this point in the grant program.
Training grantees reported placing 8,035 participants and have
reported 1,336 participants retained employment for at least 6
months, or 2 percent of the targeted employment retention of
69,717 participants.
…ETA could not demonstrate that grantees were on target to
meet grant outcomes nor was there a plan to ensure that they
could. …with 61 percent of the training grant periods elapsed,
only 10 percent of participants entered employment.
At this point, there is no evidence that grantees will
effectively use the funds and deliver targeted employment
outcomes by the end of the grant periods. With no evidence to
support grantees were on target to meet outcomes, grantees may
not assist those most impacted by the recession and achieve
performance outcomes such as placements within the time limits
set by grant agreements.
