3 state agencies shuffling work for efficiency

The realignment will create more jobs in state government.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio is realigning three major state agencies in order to improve the way it matches businesses with workers and jobseekers with jobs.

Gov. Ted Strickland issued an executive order Thursday shuffling an array of state programs housed within the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, the Ohio Department of Development and the Ohio Board of Regents so that programs better fit the goals and strengths of their host agencies.

The changes may be largely invisible to average Ohioans, but Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher says the administration is convinced the new arrangement will improve the state’s economy by getting more residents into good jobs and providing better prepared workers to Ohio businesses.

“Despite a 5.3 percent unemployment rate, we still have [job] vacancies throughout the state,” Fisher said in a conference call with reporters. “Not because there aren’t jobs available, but because there aren’t properly skilled workers to meet the needs.”

The state Development Department, which Fisher oversees, will take the lead role awarding work force development, job training and business grants under the order — becoming the umbrella agency for federal Workforce Investment Act programs.

Development will gain 29 employees and $34 million combined from the budget for Job and Family Services and the Board of Regents, which oversees public colleges and universities.

Helen Jones-Kelley, director of Job and Family Services, said the realignment will remove some programs from her mammoth agency that weren’t related to its strengths, allowing it to focus more attention on social programs that emphasize job readiness, self-sufficiency and maintaining healthy families.

The third prong of the realignment is to move control of the Ohio Skills Bank created under Strickland from Job and Family Services to the Regents. Already, the regents have been given oversight of some adult education functions previously housed at the Ohio Department of Education.

Regents Chancellor Eric Fingerhut said the skills bank will fill a critical role for higher education leaders, allowing the agency to collect statewide employment data so that institutions can better tailor their course content and the majors they offer to the needs of businesses.

The Regents would add four employees under the arrangement.