DOL Announces Workforce Development Grants

The US Department of labor has announced $65 million in grants to community colleges for supporting and increasing the availability of classes to meet employer and worker skill development needs.  This is the DOL’s fourth round of this type of grant money, this time encouraging the partnership of ‘unions or labor-based management organizations’ to support job development.  The grants come at a time when American workers have been steadily increasing their personal education level.  An estimated 62 million Americans in the workforce have at least a bachelor’s degree, a 30% increase from 2013.  It worth noting that some suggest that this trend could  cause its own challenges. As the number of educated workers increase, competition will increase for jobs that require higher educational experience.  And, for jobs that do not require higher levels of education, the already significant labor shortage will continue to grow.