By Elana Gordon
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kcur/local-kcur-988306.mp3
Kansas City, Mo. – Full Employment Council President Clyde McQueen encouraged Kansas Citians yesterday not to expect overnight changes to the area's grim employment figures. Change will come, he said, if the city changes the way communities and colleges work with the FEC.
"We've had a structural realignment in our economy," McQueen said, speaking at a Metropolitan Community College event yesterday. The event was a promotion of the new $20 million job training initiative aimed at training underemployed residents in the health services fields.
This week's Department of Labor statistics rank Kansas City the second worst area in the nation in terms of job losses over the past year. The number of jobs lost in the city during that time was approximately 12,000.
"[We] have to do in a much more direct and organized way, which means we have to change the way communities and colleges do their business along with our organization," McQueen said.
The new job training program is funded by a federal grant. It aims to train Missourians in growing and emerging health care fields such as health information technology.
McQueen also emphasized that state law now allows laid off workers to continue collecting unemployment while going back to school.