The State of California recently released the 2015-2016 performance report for the state’s federally funded local workforce development services, which found that the city’s employment training providers performed well beyond state mandated goals for both its youth and adult programs.

Evaluating Oakland and other areas, this report compares actual performance for placements, job retention, and average wages to state-mandated goals set at the beginning of each program year.

These particular statistics are of vital importance for our local job seekers. The state’s report shows that the network of employment training providers for the City of Oakland performed well beyond state-mandated goals with both its youth and adult programs.

“In a challenging environment for job seekers, these results are a testament to the hard work of staff and the great partnerships with local employers,” said Gay Plair Cobb, CEO of Oakland PIC.

“We serve those that are most in need, having faced challenges such as lack of job training, incarceration, lack of housing and education, and computer literacy. It is our duty as workforce service providers to open doors of opportunity for our customers and help them achieve employment sustainability,” Cobb said.

Chris Iglesias, CEO, Unity Council

Chris Iglesias, CEO of The Unity Council, said, “This is a testament to the strengths of Oakland’s workforce provider network. We are proud to see our clients reaching employment success, many of whom face numerous barriers to employment including lack of formal education and limited English proficiency.”

“The Oakland workforce network has come together to make sure that everyone has the opportunity to find a career path and reach self-sufficiency,” he said.

“This year was the best performance of the City of Oakland’s local workforce system in the past three years, demonstrating continued improvement in how the city and its contracted service providers meet the needs of Oakland residents,” said Erica Derryck, Director of Communications for Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf.

The adult service provider network includes the Oakland Private Industry Council, the Unity Council, and ASSETS Senior Services. This performance report reflects the work of staff at these three organizations in providing job training and workforce services to adult job seekers in Oakland, including recently laid off workers.

For unemployed adults, who often have significant barriers to successful employment, the City of Oakland achieved more than 100 percent of the state-mandated goals for job placement, job retention, and average wage.

The report shows that the rate of successful placement of long term unemployed job seekers was 67 percent, (110 percent of the state’s expected placement rate of 60.5 percent). These job seekers had a starting average wage of $13 an hour, and 82 percent were retained in employment for more than six months, well in excess of the state’s goal.

The employment placement rate for laid off workers was even higher at 76 percent with a starting average wage of $19 an hour. Over 85 percent of laid off workers retained employment for more than six months.

All of these results were significantly higher than the goals set by the state.

Similarly, for the youth providers of Oakland, the 2015-2016 performance report indicates that more than 100 percent of state-mandated goals were achieved in two out of the three performance standards.

In particular, job placement for youth reported a success rate of 75 percent, which was 136 percent of the state mandated goal. Oakland’s youth service providers include: Youth Employment Partnership, Lao Family Community Development, Civicorps, Youth Radio and Youth Uprising.

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