Chadron Workforce Development office cut

By Kerri Rempp, Record staff writer | Sunday, November 02, 2008

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

CHADRON, Neb. -- People looking for a job in the Nebraska Panhandle area and employers searching for help on employee issues soon will have one less resource to access.

In spite of the current economic crisis and rising unemployment, the Nebraska Department of Labor announced last week that the Chadron office of Workforce Development will be closed this week.

Barb Reed, the coordinator and sole employee of the local office, was notified Oct. 16 that her office will shut down Nov. 6.

"It's budget. They're doing a RIF -- reduction in force -- across the state," she said. In addition to Chadron, offices in Kearney, Holdrege and Falls City also are being closed and there were staff layoffs in the Lincoln and Omaha offices.

Catherine Lang, Nebraska's commissioner of labor, explained that the department receives most of its funding from federal dollars, and there are two issues at work that are causing some confusion over the announcement.

"Over the past few years, the Department of Labor was struggling with its accounting," she said. "This department is in arrears to the federal government to the tune of $2.6 million," Lang noted. The agency had not properly accounted for its overhead costs for several years.

The agency now has a better handle on the grant dollars available for the current fiscal year, and officials realized that unless they cut expenses, the agency would overspend its budget for this year as well. People assume the department is cutting expenditures to pay off the debt to the federal government, but that's not true, Lang said.

"This is to 'right-size' the agency to its federal funds."

Cuts in staff also took place earlier this summer, but the department knew at that time that additional program cuts would be required to bring spending into line with available resources.

In closing the offices in Chadron, Kearney, Holdrege and Falls City, the department looked at the number of cases each office processed. Of the four offices in the Panhandle, Chadron was the least busy.

"These were the offices that had the least amount of traffic in relation to nearby offices," Lang explained. Those nearby offices should be able to pick up the workload and offer the services, and some staff reassignments will take place to ease that transition.

Locally, the closure means Reed will no longer be available to assist employers in posting jobs to the state's joblink Web site or answer their safety and law questions. Veterans will not have a local counselor to aid them in finding jobs, and other job searchers will have to register at the Alliance office or use the joblink Web site instead of visiting face-to-face with Reed in Chadron.

"At this point, that's what's going to be open for people, including myself," she said.

Reed has 300 to 500 active job searchers at any given time and gives support to employers from Valentine to Harrison and into South Dakota. She also offers help with resumes and administers tests and assessments for employers like the city or Chadron State College.

"Unfortunately, it's just sad that this end of the state is getting cut," Reed said.

Lang knows it doesn't resonate well when someone from the eastern end of the state says that the Alliance office can offer the services. She understands it's still a drive for individuals to make, but the department cannot continue to overspend its budget.

Additional non-metro offices were also considered for closure, but instead the department chose to lay off staff in Lincoln and Omaha. Lang believes that was a more balanced approach to the cuts rather than having all of the closures come from out-state Nebraska. The closures were discussed for months, she said, but it was decided that they would not take place until she took over as commissioner Sept. 15.

Lang suggested employers and prospective employees utilize the other offices in the Panhandle or access the department's services online. For those who don't have Internet access, she pointed out that local libraries or other facilities usually have public-access terminals, and that other agencies who often partnered with Workforce Development offices will still be available. In Chadron, Workforce Development was co-located with Nebraska Health and Human Services.

"We will be working with our fellow state agency to assure that citizens in the Chadron area can access the services of NWD-DOL as easily as possible," Lang said. "We do plan to be available in Chadron on designated days to assist persons in need of employment services."