St Louis Career Seekers Get Help

and jobs throughout the State of Missouri

have received a lot of help as of late.

The Missouri Department of Economic Development

recently released “Competing in the 21st Century: Building the Workforce To Lead Missouri’s Economic Transformation,” a report that details significant achievements in the state’s workforce development system during the last year.

According to the report, Missouri Career Centers provided services to 398,092 residents from July 1, 2008, to June 30 of this year, which is a 70 percent increase from the previous year. About 243 companies were able to provide training assistance to 32,468 workers through the Missouri Customized Training Program. Those workers earned an average of $19.50 per hour.

The Workforce Investment Act provided 22,074 adults, dislocated workers and youth with career assistance services. Another 24,007 veterans received intensive employment assistance. In addition, more than 2,100 employers provided more than 7,800 youth with on-the-job training and work experience through the Next-Generation Jobs Team.

“Creating new jobs for Missourians will always be the number one priority of the Missouri Department of Economic Development,” Katie Steele Danner, interim director of the DED, said. “This report illustrates the level of excellence maintained by our workforce system leaders and professionals to ensure Missouri’s job seekers and businesses can depend on the best career services available.”

“These successes would not be possible without the strong partnerships between DWD, local workforce investment boards, employers, organized labor and community colleges,” DWD Director Julie Gibson said. “I am committed to working collaboratively with state and local partners to ensure that Missouri’s workforce development system is up to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.”

Although St. Louis

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itself has maintained a relatively high unemployment rate, the city has managed to add some jobs. During August, the city maintained an unemployment rate of 9.9 percent, which was only slightly higher than the national unemployment rate at the time of 9.7 percent.

St. Louis had a total non-farm employment of 1,303,600 workers during August, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics

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. This is up from 1,302,500 workers during July, but a 3.9 percent decrease from last year.

Tags: St Louis careers