Kasich announces Workforce Board

Staff report

COLUMBUS

Gov. John R. Kasich announced the members of his Executive Workforce Board on Monday, in what the administration called a fix for Ohio’s “broken work-force development system.”

In February, Gov. Kasich created the Governor’s Office of Workforce Transformation and aimed at strengthening the Executive Workforce Board with an executive order.

The 25-member board will advise Kasich on the development, implementation and continuous improvement of Ohio’s entire work-force system, including recommendations on how best to streamline 77 work-force programs scattered across 13 state agencies.

Work-force programs are those geared toward job training, education or aimed at easing workers transitions from one industry to another after a layoff.

For the most part, the board represents private- industry business, but also includes representatives from the Ohio General Assembly, local government, state agencies, labor and higher education. The board will be chaired by Blane Walter, CEO of InChord Communications.

Last week, for the third month in a row, the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services reported no change in the state’s unemployment rate.

This is after nearly a year of slight month-to-month decreases.

The state’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate was 7.2 percent in August, compared with an 8.1 percent national rate the same month.