Georgia Department of Labor
Suite 642 148 International Boulevard N.E. Atlanta, Georgia 30303-1751 (404)656-3032

April 3, 1998

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

GEORGIA IAPES CHAPTER SUPPORTS LABOR DEPARTMENT'S PROGRAMS
ATLANTA -- If a job cures more ills than medicine, as some people say, then the Georgia Department of Labor may be the state's best doctor.
And the state's best nurse may be the 525-member Georgia Chapter of the International Association of Personnel in Employment Security (IAPES), a professional organization of the nation's labor department employees. The international organization, which has about 20,000 members, supports the programs of labor departments nationwide, which include helping people find jobs and employers find good workers.
In its 19th Annual Employment Security Report released recently at its international headquarters in Frankfort, Ky., IAPES gave the Georgia chapter high marks for its support of the state labor department. The report covers work in employment service and job training, unemployment insurance and labor market information.
IAPES cites Georgia, which has added about 100,000 new jobs annually for the past several years, as a national leader in job creation. Prior to the Summer Olympics in 1996, Georgia was the third leading state in job growth, followed by California and Texas.
The report says Georgia has used innovative methods to boost its job placements, such as America's Job Bank (AJB), a computerized listing of 300,000 jobs nationwide, Job Information System (JIS), a statewide listing of about 40,000 jobs, and Georgia Job TV, a listing of local jobs on cable TV.
Spurred by increased computer access, more than 600,000 people came to 53 labor department offices in Georgia last year for a variety of employment-related services. Among those helped were about 16,000 dislocated workers who participated in job training programs under the federal Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA).
At the same time, the unemployment insurance division paid benefits totaling $284,881,204 to more than 230,000 workers who had lost their jobs through no fault of their own. Yet, at year's end, Georgia's trust fund, from which the jobless benefits are paid, had one of the nation's healthiest balances at $1.7 billion.
Labor market information programs helped employers locate skilled workers and make key decisions about expansions and relocations to Georgia. Last year, the department worked with 470 employers considering such moves. And labor market data was also provided to numerous employers on salary structures and number of jobs available.
The department, along with the Atlanta Project and the state's Division of Family and Children's Services, won the prestigious Golden Glasses Award from the Atlanta Regional Commission for efforts on the Welfare-to-Work program. The labor department is working with the Department of Human Resources, and its Division of Family and Children's Services, and the Department of Adult and Technical Education to help provide employment-related services to 58,000 public assistance recipients, with at least 18,000 placed on jobs by July.

The recent General Assembly, enacted department sponsored legislation that led to the passage of a new law that approved an $87.6 million across-the-board tax cut for all employers, provided another tax cut for employers that set up drug-free programs, authorized the agency to withhold child support payments from unemployment insurance benefits paid to "dead-beat dads" from other states and turn the money over to the courts, and increased the maximum weekly unemployment insurance benefits from $224 to $244, effective July 1.

NEWS MEDIA NEEDING MORE INFORMATION MAY CALL (404) 656-3032 E-mail: communications@dol.state.ga.us.

FY-98-500

An Equal Opportunity Employer