Labor Department Delays Hurt Job Assistance Programs

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Labor Department Delays Hurt Job Assistance Programs
By Larry Margasak Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Labor Department delays have kept emergency aid from quickly reaching workers faced with layoffs and plant closings, congressional investigators say.

Congress had envisioned a program operating with unusual speed, allowing state and local officials to provide aid to workers before they received their last paychecks.

Instead, delays of more than three months have forced 25 states to deny services or delay them, the General Accounting Office said in a report this month.

"If you can't get into a plant before it closes the workers are dispersed," said Jane McDonald-Pines, a policy analyst for the AFL-CIO...."Employers need to find skilled workers to fill the jobs that are available. But by delaying worker training grants, this administration is creating a further drag on our economy," she said.
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