I will soon be introducing legislation to extend the Reemployment Fund for another four years.  Both the PA Department of Labor & Industry, and the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources have expressed interest and support in the extension of this fund.
 
The Reemployment Fund is funded by a portion of employee tax paid under the Unemployment Compensation (UC) Law.  It was established in Section 301.4(e)(1) of the law, which provided that five percent of employee contributions on wages paid from January 1, 2013 through September 30, 2017, were to be paid into the Reemployment Fund.  Act 54 of 2022 extended the allocation of five percent of employee contributions to the Reemployment Fund through September 30, 2024. 
 
The Reemployment Fund may be used by L&I for the following purposes:

• Programs and services to assist individuals become employed or improve their employment.
• Research and studies to improve the department’s ability to provide employment services.
• Improvements to the department’s IT infrastructure that will enhance the ability to provide employment services.
• Administrative costs associated with the above activities.
• L&I is also permitted to make funds available to other governmental and private sector organizations, on a competitive basis, to perform the activities outlined above.

 
Below is a breakdown of how recent Reemployment Funds have been and plan to be used for workforce development:

• Outdoor Corps:  $1.6 million to provide the youth and young adult skills development program that offers participants, aged 15-25, meaningful work skills training and work experience, while serving Pennsylvania’s outdoors.
• Schools-to-Work:  $250,000 to provide funding to support the establishment or enhancement of workforce development partnerships between schools, employers, organizations or associations to create employment and training pathways.
• Industry Partnership:  Approximately $2 million to provide additional funding for Industry Partnerships Grants.
• Veterans Employment Program:  Approximately $600,000 to provide Pennsylvania veterans with flexible resources to support innovative solutions to address veterans’ barriers to employment.
• Direct Care Worker Grant: $2.8 million to support job quality growth in the direct care industry.
• Grant Evaluator:  $900,000 for research and studies to improve data collection,  grant evaluation and process improvement.
• System Enhancement for the Commonwealth Workforce Development System: $1.4 million in updates and new functionality to support workforce development data tracking.
• Staffing Support: $1.75 million to support research and study workforce needs, labor market information/trends, and in-demand occupations and skills; and costs to manage the projects described above.
• PA CareerLink  Operating Budgets: $1 million supports the infrastructure and shared service costs of the PA CareerLink  facilities to support individuals with their job search and training needs.

 
This legislation will simply extend the dates for the Reemployment Fund to be in existence:  Five per centum (5%) of the contributions on wages paid from October 1, 2024 through September 30, 2028 shall be deposited into the Reemployment Fund to the extent the contributions are paid on or before December 31, 2028.

Thank you for your consideration of cosponsoring this legislation.