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Maine Employment Grant

May 25th, 2007 Posted by Amelia

United States Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao says, “The WIRED Initiative recognizes that local economies often do not neatly conform to geographic boundaries.” She continued, “WIRED brings together universities, businesses, community colleges, foundations and economic development organizations to help equip regional workforces with the skills needed to succeed in the 21st century worldwide economy.”

WIRED is a program called the Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development Initiative. It began in 2006 early in the year as a competition for states and territories to submit grant proposals of up to $5 million dollars to help their regional economy. In the first running of the WIRED grant program, 13 regions were selected.

A Maine Unemployment Grant was issued during the second run of the WIRED Initiative. The United States Department of Labor’s WIRED grants make a significant contribution to regional economies and help lower the unemployment rates in places that would otherwise have high unemployment numbers. The northern part of Maine was one of the areas that greatly benefited from the program, as it has been a region with higher than average unemployment numbers.
Secretary Chao has recently announced the third running of the WIRED grants competition.

Governors from every state and territory are welcome to apply. Secretary Chao informed each governor about the details of the competition through a letter. Every region is permitted to send in two proposals. It is also required that other sources of funds should be identified as an aid to the grant they would receive.

The unemployment rate in the U.S. for highly skilled workers and college graduates is near 1.9%. Overall, the national unemployment average is near 4%. This seems to be a pretty low rate. Some economists consider even such a low rate as this to be a labor shortage. Many regions do have higher than average unemployment rates, and that is what the WIRED Initiative is all about.