What's next for the money, AI and workforce, and $1.1 billion in grants listings.
Plus, credentialing’s report card, things not to say in the run-up for a confirmation hearing, and bad schedules for workers.
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Hello
Greetings from D.C., where I hope you had a lovely Juneteenth (and wish you a somewhat belated Roll Pride).
This is an absolutely packed edition of THE MONEY. A head’s up that behind the paywall I have a bit of blowout today ahead of the end of one funding year on June 30. I break down why I’m feeling doubtful about block grants becoming a thing, how to prepare for a possible midsummer grants blitz, and what workforce programs we should get good or bad news about in the next week.
Toplines
News you should know affecting money that gets people to work.
Best to avoid saying this sort of thing when getting confirmed.
One notable thing came out of Wednesday’s Senate HELP Committee hearing with a basketball team of Trump nominees that included Jonathan Berry, my former Trump I DOL colleague and Trump II’s pick to be Solicitor of Labor, DOL’s chief attorney and the No. 3 leader in the agency.
Sen. Tim Kaine said Berry told Democratic committee staff “that women like to work part time.” Berry denied the comment and pointed toward some surveys to add context.
He also seemed to back the elimination of the Women’s Bureau, a grantmaking agency, although he noted he didn’t call for elimination in painting the agency as a politicized source of predetermined research in his Project 2025 section. (Having worked with the Women’s Bureau on and off for about a decade, I have no clue what Berry is talking about in this attack, FYI.) Berry maintained he wouldn’t have a say in policy, but having the most say in the law underlying that policy is not insignificant in the process of sorting what happens to the Bureau and its cash.
DOL and AI, workforce, and making what comes next.
At a Business Roundtable event on Tuesday, DOL Deputy Secretary Keith Sonderling said America must “train our current workers and the next generation of workers on how to use AI… so they're no longer afraid about AI [job] displacement[.]” But he also indicated that he thinks a lot of jobs are going to go away. He said executives “need to tell us where those jobs are going” so that training money can go toward them. It is unclear how that sentiment squares with the Trump Administration’s proposed massive workforce cuts.
On Wednesday, the Study Group published a report calling for the Trump DOL to take actions to improve access to AI jobs training, including determining AI skills as “in demand” and requiring widespread AI inclusion in federally jobs training programs. The report also suggests clawing back money from employers that receive federal workforce money then eliminate jobs for AI and prioritizing funding for those that preserve or create new jobs using AI.
Do credentials mean anything? Yes, if they’re good.
That is what I took away from a Burning Glass Institute report published this week about its Credential Value Index. The report found only “material” wage gains for 1 in 8 non-college credentials, but the best-quality ones produced wage gains of around $5,000 and improved upward mobility.
Many American workers’ schedules at least kind of suck.
Sixty-two percent of workers have work schedules lacking in stability, predictability, or control, according to a survey by Jobs for the Future, The Families & Workers Fund, W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, and Gallup. The Trump Administration has pivoted from the good jobs work of the Biden Administration, which included scheduling as a frequent factor in workforce funding awards to help workers stay in jobs and employers benefit from better-seasoned talent.
Employers have taken the new administration’s existence as a cue that they don’t have to be near as accommodating to workers. Yet, as some employers still continue to complain about a mythical “skills gap,” one way of preventing the need for new skilled hires is by retaining the workers you have through predictable scheduling. There is plenty reason to doubt this administration will program dollars to incentivize better scheduling, even if it’s needed.
Apprenticeship virtual town hall on Monday.
DOL’s Registered Apprenticeship Center for Excellence will hold a meeting “on advancing alignment of America’s apprenticeship, education, and workforce systems.” This flows from a contract awarded long before the second Trump Administration, but it offers an interesting opportunity to understand where apprenticeship is at during a time when employers seem really down on it.
This week’s grants listings number: $1.1 billion.
Next week we’ll likely dip below a billion for the first time, and a lot of money comes off the board on June 30. Hopefully things pick up after July 1.
Behind the paywall.
Reasons to be doubtful about the Trump Administration getting its block grants.
Where Job Corps stands.
Summer grants blitz?