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Utah Unemployment Grant

January 25th, 2007 Posted by Amelia

Did you ever wish the feds would just give you half a million dollars to upgrade your skills in any way that you wish? Many unemployed workers have had that fantasy. Now, it’s coming true for unemployed workers in the Wasatch Range area of Utah.

A Utah unemployment grant was recent announced to aid the Wasatch Range area. The grant, under the WIRED program, is an attempt by the U.S. Labor Department’s Employment and Training Administration to help struggling regional economies. The grant includes an initial gift of $500,000 for training in the region. After a regional implementation plan is prepared, the region will be given an additional $4.5 million grant to use in any worker-training program they like.

Part of the WIRED effort, the recent program includes a Utah unemployment grant of up to $5 million to train workers in the Wasatch Range area of Utah. “Investing in area workforces through this collaborative approach will boost entire regions’ economic vitality,” U. S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao said when announcing a recent Utah unemployment grant.

Technically, the program’s name is the Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development initiative, although it is usually referred to by the initials WIRED. WIRED is a program conducted by the U.S. Department of Labor to improve the economy in troubled regions by training workers.

The Wasatch Range was chosen as one of several areas to receive second round WIRED grants. Under this federal program, the Wasatch Range area will use the Utah unemployment grant to improve the area economy by training unemployed workers for better jobs. In total, this second round of WIRED grants will exceed $65 million. The first group of WIRED grants awarded $195 million to 13 regions. WIRED has proven highly successful in recent years in improving an area’s unemployment. The grants are awarded based on a competition involving the state governors.