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The Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) works to build up the labor market through the training of the workforce and the placement of workers in jobs through employment services. The ETA directs adults, youth, dislocated workers, and workforce development professionals to information on these programs and services.
Its mission is to contribute to the more efficient functioning of the U.S. labor market by providing high quality job training, employment, labor market information, and income maintenance services primarily through state and local workforce development systems.
The Administration offers information for employers on several areas, including tax credits and other hiring incentives, how to find and train employees, assistance with plant closures and downsizing, legislation text, and ETA grants and contracts. It also provides the most current ETA solicitation for grant applications (SGA), requests for proposals (RFPs), and the latest information from several National Programs.
ETA generally is recognized as the nation’s primary “human resource” agency. ETA provides job training, job search assistance, labor market information, and temporary income support through state and local workforce investment systems. ETA also administers programs for occupational skills training, job readiness preparation, rapid response to layoffs, unemployment insurance, labor exchange and career information, and apprenticeships under a variety of federal laws. Some ETA programs are available to the general public (such as the electronic databases in America’s CareerOneStop), while others are targeted to subgroups of current or future workers at special risk in the economy (such as dislocated workers, low income adults and youth, and Native Americans).
ETA generally does not directly provide services, but rather provides funds to intermediaries or partners who provide the services. These partners include:
- State and local government entities that provide services through state and local government staff or through contracts and grants with other entities at the local level;
- Public and private not-for-profit organizations, such as community colleges, proprietary schools, businesses, faith-and community-based organizations, unions, and other federal agencies that receive funds directly from ETA to provide services to individuals; and
- Private-for-profit firms that receive funds from ETA to conduct research, provide technical assistance, and create computer-based information systems.
ETA also administers, together with the states, a number of foreign labor certification programs, and shares responsibility for certifying eligibility of workers hired by employers who claim the Work Opportunity Tax Credit or the Welfare-to-Work Tax Credit.
Some enforcement responsibilities for ETA-administered programs are handled by other entities. For example, the Employment Standards Administration (ESA) has enforcement responsibility for certain labor certification programs, and enforcement of the WARN Act (requiring advance notice of plant closings and mass layoffs) is carried out through the courts.