Snyder on Michigan workforce development

Michigan governor Rick Snyder offers his thoughts and proposals for redesigning Michigan's workforce development system. The workforce development system is a catch-all term for the various employment and training programs financed under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) along with the lower end of the state higher education system (i.e the community colleges and the directional schools) and various other bits. Annarbor.com has a summary and a link to the underlying document.

My read is that Snyder's proposal is a bit of a mixed bag. It is not clear, for example, what value there is to having the state run its own on-line site to match employers and workers when there already are some very good ones out there, such as monster.com. Providing labor market information can be useful if it is done well; similarly the "career investment calculator" will be good or awful depending on the details of implementation. The evidence base for self-employment assistance for the unemployed is a mixed bag, but you can find some support for it. I do very much like his idea of allowing in more skilled immigrants. And so on and so on.