Bloomberg and Quinn open renovated Workforce1 Career Center

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and city council speaker Christine Quinn opened the newly-renovated Workforce1 Career Center and NYC Business Solutions Center at 168-25 Jamaica Ave. Located in all five boroughs, the centers help New Yorkers prepare for and find jobs and provide local businesses with assistance hiring employees. The renovated center in Jamaica offers additional training and recruitment rooms and computer stations and a revamped communications system. Since the city's Department of Employment merged with the Department of Small Business Services (SBS) in 2003, the agency has increased the number of job placements from 500 per year to more than 16,000 per year. The mayor and speaker were joined at the opening by SBS commissioner Robert Walsh, Queens Borough president Helen Marshall, state senator Malcolm Smith and council members Leroy Comrie, Jr., and Tom White, Jr. "Since aligning our workforce training and small business services in 2003, we've placed New Yorkers in 50,000 jobs and helped thousands of local businesses become more competitive by providing them with hiring assistance," said Bloomberg. "Our Workforce1 Career Center and NYC Business Solutions Center in Jamaica achieved a record number of job placements last year, and after the expansion it will be positioned to serve even more New Yorkers. Together with our Jamaica Plan, designed to spur the development of three million s/f of new office, retail and hotel space and create 9,500 jobs, the expanded center will help put local residents to work." "A well-trained work force is a crucial aspect of New York's long-term vitality. There are great strides being made on meaningful pathways of effective job placement at the Workforce1 Career Center and NYC Business Solutions Center," said Quinn. "Since 2003, they have found thousands of New Yorkers jobs not by taking a uniform approach to every community, but by recognizing that each community has its own unique needs and tailoring their programs accordingly." The $1.5 million expansion, paid for with federal Workforce Investment Act funds, increases the center's training and recruitment rooms from three to seven, adds space to the two computer training rooms, and increases the number of computer stations for customer use from 20 to about 60. The number of job placements secured through the Jamaica center has risen from an average of 236 per quarter in 2004, to a record 905 last year. In the first quarter of 2008, 931 job placements were secured. The unemployment rate has decreased from 6.9% in 2003 to 4.2%. SBS has partnered with the NYS Department of Labor and the City University of New York to create six Workforce1 Career Centers. N.Y.C. Business Solutions Centers help entrepreneurs and small businesses open, operate and expand by providing free services including assistance accessing financing, hiring and training employees and navigating government, and general business education and business planning assistance.