An austere congressional budget bill makes clear that the feds aren’t going to meaningfully boost funding for job training, while states are already straining to continue major workforce programs. Also, a flurry of new money from foundations and big business aimed at the skilled trades pipeline, and an essay on the risk of employers’ building training programs in isolation. (Subscribe here.)

Workforce development gets plenty of bipartisan love these days, particularly among Republicans who tout the trades and criticize overreliance on four-year degrees. Yet it’s an increasingly safe bet that no meaningful new workforce money is coming from Washington, which remains focused on cutting funding for agencies that aren’t the Pentagon.

The budget bill that House Republicans advanced this week would reduce the U.S. Department of Labor’s funding by $3.7B or about 27%. The biggest proposed disinvestments are aimed at the primary federal workforce system under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. The $2.9B allocated to the three largest programs would be slashed by $1.8B—a 62% cut.

Few experts defend the effectiveness of WIOA, a highly fragmented voucher system that is too often bewildering to jobseekers. And the program rarely helps workers move into jobs with lower automation risk.

Rachel Lipson has been calling for a full refresh of federal policy to support workforce development. “I’m very open to ideas that fundamentally rethink WIOA, including the youth program,” says Lipson, a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Yet Lipson says gutting the already underfunded workforce system is irresponsible.

“I’m not at all persuaded that what we need right now is less resources, not more,” she says. “Especially at a moment with so much economic uncertainty ahead.”

Some on the right agree, at least privately. As one Republican lobbyist told me, the Trump administration is talking about jobs and the need for highly skilled workers, while joining Republicans on the Hill in trying to slash federal job training without pointing to a replacement.

“WIOA may not be the answer,” the lobbyist says. “But they should be pointing to something substantial, even if at another agency.”

That’s not happening right now, even with apprenticeship—a favorite among politicians for helping more Americans break into good careers.

The proposed “robust funding” level of $290M for registered apprenticeship will help President Trump reach his goal of surpassing 1M active new apprentices, said Rep. Tom Cole, the Oklahoma Republican who chairs the appropriations committee. That’s a $5M budget increase to close a gap of 300K apprentices—$17 per apprentice.

Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans and the Trump administration want an AI-ready workforce and a big boost for the skilled trades and the defense industrial base.

“We don’t have the workers to do that,” says Drew Bercich, CEO of the National Association of Workforce Boards. “The appropriations bill seems to conflict with those stated goals.”

The proposal earmarks $60M for “enhanced work training” in rural regions of Appalachia, the Delta, and the northeast border with Canada. But that would be a small funding bump for a long-standing carve-out of the WIOA budget. The Strengthening Community Colleges Training Grants Program also would get $10M more, bringing it to $75M.

The modest increases are welcome, says Katie Spiker, chief of federal affairs at the National Skills Coalition. But they hardly counteract a 27% cut to the Labor Department, which Bercich calls “horribly problematic.” Meanwhile, Spiker says states are looking where to cut spending, not if.

The budget bill is somewhat performative, and still needs to clear the full House and Senate. Last year the Senate largely ignored a similar House plan and the Trump administration’s call to gash federal workforce programs by $1.64B while consolidating the remainder under the rebranded Make America Skilled Again tagline.

Even so, nobody I’ve spoken with predicts serious funding increases or new programs aimed at the workforce coming from D.C. anytime soon. Real action will have to come from state governments. And a slight haircut for federal job training programs seems most likely this year.

The Kicker: “It’s certainly not meeting the moment,” Spiker says of the budget bill. “This doesn’t reflect what people need to move through the economy, or what business would need.”

States Strain to Keep Up Momentum

The proposed cuts to WIOA come at a time when many states are already straining to support all but the most basic workforce programs, as revenue growth slows and the last tranche of pandemic-era recovery money runs out. 

North Carolina failed to pass a budget last year and has yet to do so this year, with the full operation of its apprenticeship agency on the line. The state has been a leader in expanding apprenticeship beyond the trades. But without about $3.1M from the state, ApprenticeshipNC stands to lose 18 staff positions and all its marketing capacity when major federal grants run out this month, as first reported by EdNC. 

California is planning to invest more money in trades apprenticeships, but its pay-for-performance fund—a national model for expanding apprenticeships in fields like early childhood education—was left out of the budget that’s being finalized this month. The initiative is in its final months unless that changes. And in Maryland, the legislature was able to draw down on an existing account to provide $10M for apprenticeship in the upcoming year, including the state’s pay per apprentice program. But with a $1.5B budget shortfall, Maryland couldn’t add new money.

“States are being squeezed by the expiration of federal funds, and also their own budget situations,” says Melissa Johnson, chief of policy and state strategies at the National Skills Coalition. “And, of course, this is coming at a time when there are going to be even more asks of the workforce system.”

Labor force participation rates have been steadily declining, especially among men. And states also are grappling with how to respond to mixed signals on entry-level hiring and the impending impacts of AI.

Bright Spots:Special funds are providing cushion in some states. Connecticut allocated $30M in bond funding to continue its Career ConneCT initiative, which was initially supported by dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act. The effort has been instrumental in seeding short-term credentials and regional partnerships built around key industries. The state money will help continue that work and expand the Career ConneCT portal into a full talent marketplace.

“The governor’s office and the Office of Workforce Strategy remain committed to supporting programs that expand opportunity for Connecticut residents,” says Kelli Vallieres, the state’s chief workforce officer.

In Ohio, the governor and JobsOhio, a nonprofit economic development corporation funded by the state’s liquor sales, just announced a 10-year, $300M initiative to support experiential learning in critical industries such as advanced manufacturing and healthcare. The fund will incentivize employers to hire people and provide on-the-job training while they’re still in education programs, or to offer registered apprenticeships and other education opportunities to current employees.

“States that are making choices to preserve those investments are doing so to preserve a better future,” says Johnson.

On The Ground: In Springfield, Mo., the city’s workforce development division is trying hard to maintain momentum it has built in recent years. Four years ago, the city won a $17.5M grant from the Good Jobs Challenge to lead a coalition of counties in southern Missouri working to help people break into careers in healthcare, education, and logistics. 

The city’s workforce division also had a $3M grant from the Apprenticeship Building America program. Both are ending.

Springfield projects it could lose up to 11 positions in workforce development over the coming months. At the same time, Ericka Schmeeckle, assistant director of workforce development, says the city is worrying about how to create training and career navigation programs its residents will need as AI adoption advances.

“You’re seeing a decrease in workforce funding but a huge need for workforce development,” she says.

The city has applied for a no-cost extension of its Good Jobs Challenge grant, which would allow it to continue the program until mid-2027 with leftover funds. Schmeeckle is looking for other federal grants that are a fit with the city’s work, and she expects to get some money through the State Apprenticeship Expansion Formula grant program. But that will likely be only be about $100K, well short of what the city has had for apprenticeship.

“Do I think without that funding it would slow apprenticeship work in the region? Absolutely,” she says. —By Elyse Ashburn

Private Spending on the Skilled Trades

A flurry of new funding announcements from big business and philanthropy is aimed at closing the severe and widening U.S. labor gap across the skilled trades. The total amount of pledged spending, however, is far less than what Congressional Republicans want to strip out of WIOA.

While the new money targets a wide range of occupations and differing career paths, some of it specifically seeks to address shortages of workers for data center construction.

Big commitments came this week from Meta and Bloomberg Philanthropies, adding to a growing list of major projects:

  • Meta is making a first-year investment of $115M to create America’s Workforce Academy, which will offer free, five-week training for the skilled trades initially in Louisiana, Ohio, Indiana, and Texas. Graduates will get a guaranteed job with a Meta data center construction contractor, the company says, as well as an industry-recognized credential and a workforce certificate.
  • Google.org committed $50M to help prepare 300K+ workers across 20+ states for careers in the skilled trades. The funding will go directly to training experts, who will support 14 labor unions and four trade associations. One partner is TradesFutures, a nonprofit created by North America’s Building Trades Unions and industry partners.
  • Bloomberg Philanthropies announced a $90M national program to connect high school students with high-wage, in-demand skilled trades jobs across auto tech, HVAC, plumbing, and advanced manufacturing. The initiative will provide free coursework and paid on-the-job training for roughly 15K students in nine regions.
  • The Lowe’s Foundation is investing $250M to help train and develop 250K skilled tradespeople by 2035, adding to a previous $53M. The project will expand partnerships with nonprofits and community colleges to increase their capacity. The foundation also is enhancing its job platform and releasing a film series on the trades.
  • BlackRock will spend $100M on a five-year philanthropic effort to back nonprofit and workforce development partners across multiple states over the next five years, beginning with Texas. The skilled trades push seeks to reach 50K workers by supporting pre-apprenticeship, training completion, and licensure.
  • The Home Depot Foundation has invested $10M in skilled trades training and education. The funding is part of a broader program that offers free online training, reaching 60K+ workers and exposing roughly 500K people to the trades. The company also provides a free jobs marketplace.

Those projects include a broad range of approaches and goals. For example, the short-term Meta training is explicitly non-union, while the new skilled trades push from Bloomberg Philanthropies focuses on union partnerships.

“Unions are really wanting to work with us,” says Jenny Sharfstein Kane, an education-focused leader for Bloomberg Philanthropies. “This is about getting your journeyman credential” and beginning a long-term career path.

Industry partners also are a feature of the new program, with companies committing to bring on a specific number of registered apprentices. For example, Ford Motor Company is co-investing in an automotive technician program at the Detroit Public Schools.

The new private money can’t take the place of government support for apprenticeships and other job training programs, Kane acknowledges. “It’s such a different scale,” and “is never going to replace federal funding.”

Yet the new skilled trades pipeline projects are badly needed, she says, given the magnitude of the labor gap. And Kane says those experiments can incentivize participation in workforce training for a wide range of players, including businesses and governments.

“We’re trying to test things out that can be scaled, particularly on the employer side,” she says.

Open Tabs

Student Support
Arizona’s Maricopa Community Colleges are receiving a $16M multi-year grant from Arnold Ventures to support student outcomes. The new Commit2Completion program will be based on the City University of New York’s ASAP, a successful wraparound support model. Arnold Ventures has made similar investments to scale ASAP, including $15.3M to San Jacinto College in Texas and $35.6M to the North Carolina Community College System.

Top Community Colleges
The Aspen Institute named 10 community colleges as finalists for the $1M 2027 Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence. The prize honors two-year colleges with strong outcomes, focusing on whether students complete credentials that lead to the attainment of bachelor’s degrees and jobs that pay family-sustaining wages. Student outcomes like those seen at the 10 finalist colleges cannot be achieved without major reforms, said the Aspen Institute’s Josh Wyner.

On-Ramp Training
More than one-quarter (27%) of U.S. adults ages 25-64, or 41.7M people, intend to enroll in education or training within the next two years, finds an updated national survey from CAEL and the CollegeAPP. A slight majority of respondents (52%) prefer shorter-term, workforce-aligned pathways, including community college and technical/vocational college, compared to enrolling in a four-year institution to pursue a bachelor’s or an advanced degree.

AI Exposure
A new interactive map quantifies exposure to AI across U.S. regions, industries, and job types. The map from the MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics draws occupational data from the federal government, job-to-task mapping from MIT, and AI capability assessments from the Anthropic AI Economic Index. Two students created the tool. Policymakers can use it to identify communities facing the greatest AI-related impact.

Talent Marketplaces
The U.S. Department of Education announced 10 states it selected as semifinalists for a $15M challenge grant that seeks to strengthen connections between learners and earners by accelerating the development of statewide talent marketplaces. Semifinalists will get technical assistance and resources during a six-month incubation period. Finalists will develop talent marketplaces, contributing to a national model for those systems.

Job Moves
Rosemary Lahasky is now director of workforce and infrastructure initiatives for Meta and is helping to launch the company’s new workforce academy. Lahasky was director of domestic policy for the White House Office of Economic Initiatives during the first Trump administration.

Jennie Sparandara is now head of Americas philanthropy for Google.org. Sparandara left her role as a managing director at JPMorgan Chase & Co. She was vice president of global philanthropy earlier in her stint at JPMC.

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