formulate and promote apprenticeship standards and programs; and conduct continuing programs of research, development, and evaluation. The Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training directs the administration of agency programs and is responsible for ensuring that programs funded through the agency are free from unlawful discrimination, fraud, and abuse, and that they comply with constitutional, statutory, and regulatory provisions. It is the policy of the Administration to promote equal opportunity, affirmative action, and integrity in programs to which the Administration extends financial assistance.

The Administration has five major components that cover employment security, job training, planning and policy development, financial and administrative management, and regional management.

Federal Unemployment Insurance Service The Federal-State Unemployment Compensation Program, under provisions of the Social Security Act of 1935 (42 U.S.C. 1305), is the basic program of income support for the Nation's unemployed workers. With limited Federal intervention, unemployment insurance benefits are payable under laws of individual States. The Federal Unemployment Insurance Service provides leadership and policy guidance to State employment security agencies for the development, improvement, and operation of the Federal-State unemployment insurance system and of related wage-loss, worker dislocation, and adjustment assistance compensation programs, including to exservice personnel and Federal civilian workers, and supplemental or extended benefits programs.

The Service reviews State unemployment insurance laws and their administration by the States to determine whether they are in conformity with Federal requirements; supervises the development of programs and methods for benefit, adjudication, appeals, tax collection, and trust fund management activities implemented by the State agencies; oversees the actuarial

soundness of the level and relationship of State expenditures, revenues, and reserves, and of Federal appropriations for payment of benefits; and is

implementing a comprehensive system to help ensure continuous improvement in the performance of unemployment insurance operations.

The Service also provides national leadership and direction in implementing its responsibilities under trade adjustment assistance, airline deregulation, and disaster unemployment assistance legislation.

For further information, call 202-219-7831. United States Employment Service The Service, under the provisions of the Wagner-Peyser Act (29 U.S.C. 49 et seq.), provides assistance to States in establishing and maintaining a system of local public employment offices in the States and territories and interstate clearance of Labor. The State public employment service is responsible for providing unemployed individuals and other jobseekers with job placement, and other employment services and for providing employers with recruitment services and referrals of job-seeking applicants.

The Service, through the State public employment service system, also provides subsidiary services which include:

-certifying aliens who seek to enter the United States for permanent employment as immigrants or as temporary workers;

-providing specialized recruitment assistance to employers;

-determining classifications of labor surplus area annually and for exceptional circumstance petitions; -providing labor surplus area information to the general public and to other Federal or State agencies to meet various program responsibilities; -disseminating labor market information;

-providing individuals with guidance, counseling, testing referral, and job opportunities;

-reviewing rural industrialization loan and grant certification applications

under the Rural Development Act of 1972 (7 U.S.C. 1921);

-distributing airline job opening information for rehiring under the Airline Deregulation Act (49 U.S.C. app. 1301); -providing supportive services to employers and applicants through the Federal bonding program; and

-providing reemployment services to dislocated workers.

For further information, call 202-219-0157.

Office of Work-Based Learning The Office administers activities under several Federal laws regarding worker training and retraining. These include the dislocated worker program under the Economic Dislocation and Worker Adjustment Assistance Act (EDWAA) (Title III of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA); Federal activities under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN); Federal activities under the Apprenticeship Act; and the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program under the Trade Act. In addition, the Office carries out research and demonstration programs.

For further information, call 202-219-0540. Office of Worker Retraining and Adjustment Programs The Office performs dislocated worker programs functions under the Economic Dislocation and Worker Adjustment Assistance Act (Title III of JTPA), and Federal activities under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

For further information, call 202-219-0525. Office of Trade Adjustment Assistance The Office administers the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program provisions of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2101 et seq.), through agreements with the States. The program provides reemployment services such as training, job search and relocation allowances, and weekly cash payments to U.S. workers who are separated from employment because of foreign imports.

The Office receives petitions for adjustment assistance from either adversely affected workers, a duly

recognized union, or an authorized representative of the workers and conducts factfinding investigations to develop necessary data on which certification determinations can be based. Determinations may involve approval, denial, or termination of worker groups' eligibility for trade adjustment assistance benefits.

The Office administers the North American Free Trade Agreement— Transitional Adjustment Assistance (NAFTA-TAA) program to help workers who become dislocated as a result of increased trade with Mexico or Canada after January 1, 1994, when NAFTA went into effect. The program emphasizes a comprehensive, timely array of retraining and reemployment services, including both rapid response and basic readjustment services. Similar to TAA, the NAFTA-TAA program provides training, job search and relocation allowances, and income support while in training.

The Office develops policies and prepares program directives to regional offices and State agencies on the administration and funding of reemployment services, and develops and maintains a system for allocating funds to those offices and agencies for reemployment services. It also directs and conducts industry studies of the number of workers in a domestic industry likely to be certified as eligible for adjustment assistance and of the extent to which existing training and employment programs may facilitate the workers' adjustment to import competition when an industry petitions the Federal Government that it is being injured because of import competition. For further information, call 202-219-0555. Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training The National Apprenticeship Act (29 U.S.C. 50) was passed in 1937 to enable the Department of Labor to formulate and promote the furtherance of labor standards necessary to safeguard the welfare of apprentices and cooperate with the States in the promotion of such standards, and to bring together employers and labor for the formulation of programs of apprenticeship.

Sponsors and potential sponsors are encouraged and assisted in the development, expansion, and improvement of apprenticeship and other forms of allied industrial training. Technical information on training methods, public training facilities, and successfully executed systems are made available to industry. Through field representatives in States, the Bureau works closely with employers, labor unions, vocational schools, community planning groups, and others concerned with apprenticeship.

Programs must meet standards established by the Bureau or a recognized State Apprenticeship Council to be registered. Field compliance reviews are conducted to determine conformity with Federal equal employment opportunity and other standards for apprenticeship and training.

For further information, call 202-219-0540.

Job Training Partnership Act The Office of Job Training Programs is responsible for the development and issuance of Federal procedures and policies pertaining to the operation of the Job Training Partnership Act (TPA) programs.

Under the act, the Secretary of Labor makes block grants to the States, insular areas, and the District of Columbia to establish programs to prepare youth and adults facing serious barriers to employment for participation in the labor force. Program services include assessment of unemployed individuals' needs and abilities; classroom training; on-the-job training; job search assistance; work experience; counseling; basic skills training; and support services. In addition to the block grants, JTPA provides for national programs for special target groups such as Native Americans and migrant and seasonal farmworkers. It also provides authority for the Job Corps, a residential training program for disadvantaged youth. For further information, call 202–219-6236. Senior Community Service Employment Program Authorized by title V of the

Older Americans Act (42 U.S.C. 3056), the program makes subsidized, part-time job opportunities in community service activities available to low-income persons aged 55 and above. Project grants are made to national-level public and private nonprofit agencies and to units of State governments. The distribution of funds among the States is governed by a statutory apportionment formula.

For further information, call 202-219-0500.

Regional Management

The Office of Regional Management provides leadership to the Employment and Training Administration's regional offices that are located in 10 areas throughout the United States. The Office executes direct-line authority over Administration field activities (except the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training and Job Corps) and provides a central point of contact at the headquarters level in connection with national office component dealings with regional staff.

Within its area of jurisdiction, each regional office is responsible for the oversight and grant administration of employment and training programs operated by State governments. Other public interest responsibilities include the coordination of Administration activities with Federal assistance programs of other agencies within the region; the implementation of employment training administrative policies on equal employment opportunity; and assistance to the States in carrying out operational responsibilities for employment and training programs at the State and local levels.

Regional Offices-Employment and
Training Administration

Address (Areas Served)

Atlanta, GA (Rm. 400, 1371 Peach

tree St. NE., 30367) (AL, FL, GA, KY, MS, NC, SC, TN)

Administrator

Toussaint L. Hayes, Acting

Boston, MA (10th Fl., One Congress Robert J. Semler

St., 02114-2021) (CT, MA, ME,

NH. RI, VT)

Chicago, IL (Rm. 628, 230 S. Dear Joseph Juarez

born St., 60604) (IL, IN, MI, OH,

WI)