May San Antonio’s struggling Able to Work program now act as a security internet for laid-off federal workers? Metropolis officers appear to suppose so.
Throughout a press convention Monday, native officers mentioned they count on ongoing rounds of federal layoffs to have an effect on San Antonio residents, including that native workforce improvement applications — together with town’s Able to Work program — are gearing as much as assist affected workers discover new jobs.
It’s unclear what number of San Antonio residents shall be affected by the cuts being made by the Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), however San Antonio’s standing as each Navy Metropolis, USA and Cyber Metropolis, USA may imply a bigger native impression underneath President Donald Trump’s initiatives, Mayor Ron Nirenberg instructed reporters throughout the convention.
In accordance with Workforce Options Alamo knowledge, the whole civilian labor power within the San Antonio-New Braunfels space is roughly 1.2 million, which means federal non-military workers represent roughly 2.9% of the whole workforce.
As of December 2024, the San Antonio space’s unemployment price is at 3.4% in keeping with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“The direct impacts to our area should not absolutely recognized but,” Nirenberg mentioned. “That’s why I’ve requested the management of town’s Able to Work program to start establishing processes to assist native employees impacted by federal motion.”
Workforce Options Alamo has additionally reactivated a hotline that was utilized throughout the peak of the coronavirus pandemic to assist join not too long ago unemployed employees to sources. Residents laid off from federal jobs can name that hotline at 210-224-4357 to begin getting linked to sources.
Council members Manny Pelaez (D8) and Adriana Rocha Garcia (D4) have additionally filed a Council Consideration Request on March 3 calling for a brand new program to fast-track the purposes and onboarding of metropolis workers that will lose their federally-grant funded positions. Nirenberg says he helps the creation of this new Re-employment Help for Federal Expertise or “RAFT” program.
“There are near 38,000 non-military federal workers within the San Antonio space,” Rocha Garcia mentioned. “We don’t know what number of of them will completely lose their jobs, however what we do know is that in San Antonio, we’re right here to assist we’re right here to assist.”
Of its community of 550-plus native employers, corporations have already began reaching out to Able to Work asking if they are often linked to any high-skilled workers, mentioned Mike Ramsey, government director of town’s Workforce Improvement Workplace, which oversees Able to Work. That features employers corresponding to H-E-B, Credit score Human, UTSA, Caterpillar, VIA and Baptist Well being System, Ramsey mentioned.
“We’ve already acquired a number of dozens of responses again with these employers desirous to do their half to soak up that expertise,” Ramsey mentioned.
The town’s program may additionally join employees who misplaced their positions with job search, compensation claims, rental help, and stabilization providers.
Throughout the pandemic, the unemployment price spiked to roughly 13% regionally, up from about 3.5% in February 2020, mentioned Adrian Lopez, CEO of Workforce Options Alamo. Lopez mentioned whereas they’re not anticipating fairly that drastic of a soar this time, “there’s nonetheless prone to be an impression.”
“We simply don’t know what that quantity is, and we simply don’t know the impression in the meanwhile,” he mentioned.
This push by town comes simply months earlier than Able to Work stops gathering metropolis funding. This system will cease receiving tax {dollars} on Dec. 31 of this yr, nevertheless, it expects to spend that funding by 2029, Ramsey mentioned, “so we’ve nonetheless bought about 4 or 5 years to go earlier than the Able to Work sources are exhausted.”
This system has confronted criticism over the previous few years for not displaying outcomes sooner. In 2020, native voters authorised gathering a 1/8-cent of metropolis gross sales tax from December 2021 to December 2025 to be put towards “approved applications associated to job coaching and the awarding of scholarships,” ensuing within the creation of this system.
By the tip of this yr, the Able to Work program is projected to have utilized practically $240 million in public funds.
To this point, Able to Work has positioned 1,928 members in jobs and a further 10,649 people are enrolled in varied coaching applications, starting from certificates programs to diploma applications, in keeping with the Able to Work on-line dashboard.
Nonetheless, this system’s progress has not absolutely met its preliminary targets, which have been revised from a goal of serving to “as much as 40,000 folks” throughout the 2020 voter marketing campaign, to “consumption” as much as 39,000 candidates, enroll 28,000 in coaching or diploma applications, and place 15,600 in jobs by early 2022.
Requested if these federal layoffs may “enhance” or change the outcomes for Able to Work, Ramsey mentioned the aim of this system has all the time been to assist join unemployed residents with sources.
“For some individuals who could really feel like it is a totally different goal group, Able to Work was all the time meant to serve the unemployed, the underemployed within the underserved communities of San Antonio,” he mentioned. “These people whose jobs have been impacted at the moment are unemployed — which is Able to Work’s audience, so this is not going to take away something. The sources which might be out there are plentiful.”
