States Offered $15 Million To Spur Disability Employment

“People with disabilities have enormous contributions to make to our economy and our society, but they remain disproportionately represented among our nation’s unemployed.”  -U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez

Federal officials want existing job training programs to better serve people with disabilities and they’re putting up millions of dollars to make it happen.

ds150415_perez

U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez said that new funding his agency is making available to states will help improve training opportunities for people with disabilities seeking employment. (U.S. Department of Labor/Flickr)

 

The U.S. Department of Labor said this week that $15 million is on the table for the effort. The new funding is intended to be used by state workforce agencies to create “flexible and innovative strategies” to grow participation of people with disabilities in federally-funded job training programs.

“People with disabilities have enormous contributions to make to our economy and our society, but they remain disproportionately represented among our nation’s unemployed,” U.S. Secretary of Labor Thomas Perez said. “We are working to change that by providing more training options that prepare these workers for good jobs. These grants will help build strong ladders of opportunity to the middle-class for these workers.”