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Utah Unemployment Grant

March 28th, 2007 Posted by Amelia

The US Dept. of Labor recently began accepting proposals for a third generation of the highly competitive WIRED grants. The previous wave of grants awarded by WIRED, including the $5 million recently awarded to Northern California, exceeded $65 million.

A Utah unemployment grant would be great news for workers, particularly in parts of the state that have traditionally experienced higher unemployment. This program is called Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development Initiative, but almost universally referred to as WIRED grants.

The WIRED initiative has a proven record of success with the programs it has developed to improve the economic performance in historically underperforming areas such as Northern California. In the first round of WIRED grants, $195 million was awarded to 13 regions around the country including the Mississippi/Arkansas Delta region, the Application region, the Delaware Valley, Northern California, Northern Indiana and Northern Alabama. These areas now enjoy an improved economic outlook and lower rates of unemployment as a result of the WIRED grants they received in recent years. These areas of distressed economy were identified by state governors supplying competitive data for regions within their states.

Secretary Chao has said, “This regional economic development strategy transcends political boundaries to better leverage a region’s assets to help workers succeed in the 21st century worldwide economy.” As with previous WIRED grants, competition is keen. Proposals for WIRED grants must have the state governor’s approval. Each governor received a letter from Secretary Chao about the competition. Governors may submit up to two proposals, for grants up to $5 million each. Competing regions must identify sources of state, regional, and private funding to complement the Labor Department’s investment.

Through WIRED, the department has invested $260 million in 26 regions throughout the country. The program and has facilitated cooperation between 10 federal agencies, sparking synergy to create high skill and high wage job opportunities for American workers in regional economies.