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JOBS Plus program is still alive Legislative support continues By PETER WONG JOBS Plus, which matches some welfare and unemployment recipients with jobs, is still very much in business. "I think the main message we want to get out is that this program is not dead, it is alive and kicking," said Jim Fong, manager of the state Adult and Family Services Division for Jackson and Josephine counties. "As the Mark Twain quote goes, reports of its death are greatly exaggerated." On Aug. 19, the Mail Tribune published an erroneous report from other news sources that indicated the 1999 Legislature had discontinued support for JOBS Plus. Fong and other officials said the program continues unchanged. JOBS (Job Opportunities Basic Services), which matched welfare recipients with education and job training, began as a pilot program in 1987. JOBS Plus stems from a 1990 ballot measure that required the state to set up a work program for welfare recipients in six counties. The 1993 Legislature approved a modified version, which was a forerunner of federal welfare changes three years later. Some participants are welfare and food-stamp recipients whose jobs are subsidized for six months in lieu of those payments. Other participants are eligible to receive unemployment payments but are placed in jobs subsidized by those payments. About 3,900 participants were enrolled statewide in the year that ended June 30, plus 1,300 carried over from the previous year. About 1,100 were from Jackson and Josephine counties. About 2,600 employers were involved statewide. The program is managed jointly by AFS, part of the Human Resources Department, and the Employment Department. The erroneous news report may have arisen because the 1999 Legislature chose not to expand JOBS Plus by dipping deeper into the unemployment benefit trust fund, which relies on employer contributions. The expansion proposal never emerged from a House committee. Fong said he and others are concerned because of the report's negative effect on current and potential employers under JOBS Plus. "We are still getting calls from employers with participants in the program, asking us what is happening," he said. Bill Thorndike Jr. of Medford, a member of the local implementation council for JOBS Plus, said employers are important. "There is a balance to be struck between employers willing to work with clients and having the right types of jobs available, and people who can meet the expectations of employers willing to bring them in," said Thorndike, president of Medford Fabrication. "We are making progress." He credited the program's local success to Fong and Jean Work, Employment Department manager in Medford. "They have brought with them a willingness to make it work," he said. Fong said Jackson and Josephine counties account for about 10 percent of Oregon's population, but slightly more than 20 percent of statewide participants in JOBS Plus during the year that ended June 30. The region accounted for a quarter of the program's 1,550 participants who ended up obtaining unsubsidized jobs with their JOBS Plus employer or another employer in the past year. The region's average wage for a subsidized job in the program was $7.41 per hour, less than the statewide average of $7.64 per hour, but above the state minimum wage of $6.50 per hour. Fong said job programs and the strong economy have helped drive down welfare rolls in Jackson and Josephine counties from 4,229 in March 1994 to 1,631 last month, a drop of 61.4 percent. The statewide drop during the same period was 59.5 percent. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA