Announcement of TANF Services to Assist Youth Get Support for Employment

ETA has issues a Training and Employment Notice(TEN)to encourage the public workforce system to partner with TANF agencies in their efforts to promote subsidized employment opportunities allowable under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s (ARRA) TANF Contingency funding for the creation and expansion of subsidized summer employment for low-income youth. It also encourages co-enrollment of youth in TANF and appropriate WIA programs so individuals can benefit from WIA services
such as supportive services,occupational skills training,and other relevant services.

The U.S. Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services have jointly identifies areas of collaboration
that support training and employment opportunities for low-income families, particularly opportunities to place eligible TANF participants in subsidized employment in the summer of 2010.
It is DOL's hope that this national partnership focused on subsidized employment will be modeled throughout state and local TANF and workforce agencies. The need for this partnership comes at a critical time-- overall teen employment rate has remained devastatingly low, reaching levels not seen in 60 years. Unfortunately, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the proportion of young people employed in July 2009 was 51.4
percent. This is the lowest July rate for the series, which began in 1948.
While the WIA summer youth employment funding under ARRA has been nearly expended,significant TANF Emergency Contingency funding remains and TANF agencies can choose to commit some of those funds to subsidized employment programs for low-income youth.

Individuals with disabilites and family members with disabilites comprise a disproportionately high percent of the population receiving TANF benefits.