Sunroom Desk

The Verdugo Jobs Center is anticipating between $500 thousand and $1 million of federal stimulus funds for job training programs, reports today’s Glendale News Press. Glendale, California taxpayers should frankly be asking: How will spending on job training increase employment in this economy?

According to Calculated Risk, “the four week moving average [for new unemployment claims in the U.S.] is at 607,500, the highest since 1982.” With just about every employer in Glendale either laying off staff or freezing new hiring, it is difficult to see the logic behind throwing money at job training programs.

The GNP article cites a Verdugo Jobs Center board member’s frustration at the situation:

..with the recession affecting nearly every sector of the economy, developing six-month or yearlong job training programs will present a new challenge for the job center, board member Rich Roche said.

“We’re sort of shooting at a moving target,” he said.

To this taxpayer, it seems as if they are shooting into thin air.

If at least half a million dollars of taxpayer money is going to job training programs here in Glendale, California alone, tell us how it should best be spent. Which jobs and companies here will the government be subsidizing so trained job seekers can find employment?

This is a big question for our local elected officials, many of whom have proposed new directions for the city. How will a new entertainment industry district, or green jobs and alternative energy investment programs be created, soon, in Glendale, to put talent here in the city to work?