Acting Labor Secretary Cinta Kaipat said for calendar year 2010, the department earned $915,000 in fees and fines but its budget was over $1.6 million.
“The budget has limited the department’s full-time personnel to 46 as of Dec. 2010 (from 85 as of Dec. 2006) and has cut the funding for other expenses. The department’s workload has increased substantially on the U.S. citizen job placement side as the economy has sunk into a depression and more U.S. citizens who are out of work seek assistance in finding jobs,” Kaipat wrote in Labor’s latest annual report submitted to the Legislature.
In terms of federal funding assistance, Kaipat said the department received only one small grant from the U.S. Department of Labor and it wasn’t fully tapped yet due to certain technicalities.
“Implementation of that grant has been delayed and no expenditures had been made as of the end of the calendar year because the new grant relationship with the U.S. Department of Labor required straightening out where the federal funds were deposited,” she said, but noted that the local department is preparing numerous federal grant applications for submission in later months.
According to Kaipat, the department’s workload in empowering U.S. citizen in the mainstream labor market has significantly increased as work on the foreign worker permit side sharply dropped.
“The department’s workload on the foreign worker permit side has decreased as uncertainty about federal regulations and the activity of some federal officials has encouraged some employers not to comply with commonwealth law,” she said.
She said the department will continue to use its powers to help local jobseekers be employed and support businesses that need their skills.
