FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jennifer Mitchell

Tuesday, October 4, 2010 916.947.9777

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER SIGNS LANDMARK LEGISLATION TO HELP

CALIFORNIA’S UNEMPLOYED

Sacramento, CA – In and effort to stop the suspension of Unemployment

Insurance (UI) benefits from flowing to unemployed Californians, the California
Workforce Association (CWA) and the California Labor Federation co-sponsored
Assembly Bill 2058 (AB 2058), authored by Assemblymember Marty Block (D – San
Diego).

Virginia Hamilton, Executive Director of the California Workforce Association,

announced today that Governor Schwarzenegger has signed AB 2058, allowing
unemployed Californians to enter into training and retraining programs without
fear of losing their unemployment insurance (UI) benefits.

“With this new legislation, people will be able to access training programs to
help them get off the unemployment rolls and put them into good jobs. AB 2058
breaks through existing barriers and will get people retrained quicker and back
to work faster – without the added burden of having their benefits cut off due to
outdated red tape.” said Block.

AB 2058, signed late last week allows the more than two million eligible
unemployed Californians to enroll in training and retraining programs that
enhance their skills and employability during the economic downturn without
losing their UI benefits.

This comes at a time when California is faced with unprecedented job loss and
a 12.4% unemployment rate. Due to the shortage of jobs, job seekers are
spending longer periods of time searching for work. Over 34% of the
unemployed have been looking for work for over 6 months, up nearly 170.5%
since 2008.

“Today is a historic day for the thousands of unemployed Californians who were
cutoff their UI benefits for enrolling in state certified training and retraining
programs,” said Hamilton. “It’s time we focus on rebuilding our workforce so we
can get California’s economy back on track.”
In May 2009, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), anticipating UI claimants to be
suspended from collecting their UI benefits due to enrolling in training programs,
issued federal guidance to state agencies that administer the UI program
encouraging states to widen the types of training and the conditions under
which education and training are considered “approved training” for purposes
of the state’s UI law. Many states responded by reconsidering their laws and
regulations, and applicable administrative requirements, to determine if their
approved training requirements were appropriate to the economy. In many
cases this resulted in states broadening their definition of approved training for UI
beneficiaries during economic downturns. In California, however, that was not
the case.

While on a tour of a One-Stop Career Center in San Diego County with Block in
early November 2009, CWA was alerted of UI claimants having their benefits
suspended when enrolling in training and retraining programs, despite DOL
guidance.

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The California Workforce is a nonprofit membership association that represents

the 49 Workforce Investment Boars, over 200 One-Stop Career Centers, and
other workforce development partners in California.