A move on the part of the Department of Labor to phase out a long-standing vocational training program is being met with a wave of criticism.
Developed during the presidency of Lyndon Johnson, the Job Corps has focused on offering both free education and training for young people.
At the time of its launching, the program had a $15 million budget to fund what were then called “training centers where idle 10,500 youths, 16 to 21, will receive basic education and perform conservation-type tasks.”
Job Corps centers were instantly established across the country, including in the states of Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico, with the intended recipients defined as young people “of good moral character” who “sincerely desire a chance to prepare themselves for their responsibilities as citizens.”
Although the program has since trained at least 3 million young men and women, the Trump Administration earlier this year said the effort is costly at $1 billion a year, prompting the Labor Department last week to announce it was implementing a “phased pause” in the operation of all Job Corps centers nationwide.
“Our in-depth fiscal analysis reveals the project is no longer achieving the intended outcomes that students deserve,” Lori Chavez-DeRemer, secretary of the Labor Department, said in a statement noting that the program will likely have a $213 million deficit this year.
Reponses to the Department of Labor decision has proven swift.
“At a time when the nation is suffering a severe labor shortage in the residential construction sector that is delaying home building projects and raising construction costs, it is extremely disappointing that the Department of Labor has decided to pause operations at Job Corps centers nationwide,” remarked Buddy Hughes, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, in a press release.
The decision, said Michigan Democrat Congress member Hillary Scholten in a statement co-signed by three other Michigan members, “derails the lives of thousands of young people and dedicated staff committed to strengthening our country’s workforce at a time of great worker shortage across the state.”
“We’re losing something very, very important,” remarked David Cantu, a graduate of a Job Corps program in El Paso. Speaking to television station KTSM, Cantu continued: “This program has given the opportunity to thousands of students to better themselves.”
The Labor Department action was partly animated by a study released in April called Job Corps Transparency Report which pointed not only to the expense of operating the Job Corps centers, but financial shortfalls in the program and poor student performances in tests.
Chavez-DeRemer has stated that in the wake of the Job Corps program, the Labor Department will work to keep intact individual workforce training programs at the state level.
The Secretary added: “We remain committed to ensuring all participants are supported through this transition and connected with the resources they need to succeed as we evaluate the program’s possibilities.”
June 3, 2025
By Garry Boulard
