FACT SHEET: President Biden Announces New Workforce Hubs to Train and Connect American Workers to Good Jobs Created by the President’s Investing in America Agenda

Today, President Biden will announce four new Workforce Hubs to ensure all Americans can access the good jobs created by the President’s Investing in America agenda, which includes the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. President Biden will make the announcement during his visit to Syracuse, New York, to highlight a CHIPS and Science Act preliminary agreement with Micron to dramatically expand semiconductor manufacturing in the United States. The Upstate New York region will be one of the four new Workforce Hubs, in addition to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and the state of Michigan.

Since the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration, private companies have announced over $825 billion in manufacturing and clean energy investments, on top of $478 billion already announced by the Administration for clean energy and infrastructure projects funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act. These investments are projected to create hundreds of thousands of good jobs—many of which do not require a college degree. The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to ensuring that all workers—including women, people of color, veterans, and those that have been historically left behind–have equitable access to those job opportunities and the training and skills needed to fill them.
 
Today’s announcement also builds on the inaugural five Investing in America Workforce Hubs in Columbus, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Augusta, and Phoenix that First Lady Jill Biden announced last May. Over the last year, the inaugural Hubs have generated dozens of significant commitments to create pipelines to good jobs, including an initiative to train 10,000 skilled construction workers in Columbus, Ohio, the first-ever registered apprenticeship program in semiconductor manufacturing at TSMC in Phoenix, and project labor agreements on $9 billion worth of infrastructure projects across Maryland. In each of the four new Hubs, the Administration will expand the successful models developed in the first round of Workforce Hubs and will continue to collaborate with state and local elected officials and community leaders to drive effective place-based workforce development efforts that are essential to the President’s vision of building an economy from the bottom up and the middle out.
 
The next four Investing in America Workforce Hubs are:  

• Upstate New York: Upstate New York has emerged as a growing hub for semiconductor manufacturing, with record-breaking investments throughout the region. To date, companies have announced hundreds of billions of dollars in private-sector investments to regain American leadership in chips manufacturing since President Biden signed his CHIPS and Science Act. And today, President Biden is announcing a $6.1 billion preliminary agreement of terms with Micron to invest in semiconductor manufacturing in New York and Idaho, which will create over 70,000 jobs. The Department of Commerce, with support from the Departments of Education and Labor, will stand up a Workforce Hub to help meet the training needs of this nascent industry and related investments in the region by fostering collaborations with partners such as labor unions, employers, and education and training providers.
• Michigan: The state of Michigan has long been the engine of the American auto industry — and the good-paying union jobs that built the American middle class. As the country accelerates into an electric vehicle (EV) future, President Biden is committed to ensuring that the workers, unions, and businesses that have historically powered the auto industry lead the next generation of clean vehicles. President Biden strongly believes that auto companies transitioning to new technology should retool, reboot, and rehire in the same factories and in the same communities with comparable wages. Building on significant efforts underway – including President Biden’s $15.5 billion investment in the retooling of existing auto plants and rehiring of existing workers for the EV transition –  the Department of Energy and Department of Labor will partner with the State of Michigan to launch an Electric Vehicle Workforce Hub.
• Milwaukee: Last December, the City of Milwaukee announced that—thanks to funding from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and in response to proposed rulemaking from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)— the City would reduce its timeline for replacing 100% of its lead pipes from 60 years to the 10 years outlined in the proposed rule. This announcement aligns with President Biden’s broader goal to remove all lead pipes across the nation within a decade. The EPA, with support from the Department of Transportation (DOT), will stand up a Workforce Hub to ensure the city has the skilled workers needed to accomplish this ambitious lead pipes replacement project and invest in clean water infrastructure in Milwaukee.
• Philadelphia: The City of Philadelphia has received billions of dollars in funding for public infrastructure—including clean water infrastructure and improved roadway safety. DOT and EPA will co-lead this Hub to ensure the city has strong workforce pipelines for all residents to access good jobs replacing lead pipes and investing in construction and infrastructure.

These new Workforce Hubs will align with the Roadmap to Support Good Jobs, the Biden-Harris Administration’s comprehensive approach to ensure that every American—whether they go to college or not—has equitable access to high-quality training, education, and services that provide a path to a good career without leaving their community. A new analysis released today from the Council of Economic Advisors outlines the economics behind the Administration’s workforce strategy and underscores how it has led to record-breaking job growth.

Progress to Date
The Investing in America Workforce Hubs build on the Biden-Harris Administration’s existing whole-of-government effort to advance high-quality workforce development, including:
Building new pipelines to connect Americans to good jobs

• The Administration has invested more than $440 million since the President took office  to expand Registered Apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeships, supporting the education and training needs of more than 1 million apprentices.
• President Biden signed a Registered Apprenticeship Executive Order to bolster apprenticeships in the federal workforce.
• The Department of Education launched the first-ever Career-Connected High School grants program, supporting 19 districts and states reimagining the high school experience to better connect to career pathways.
• The Department of Labor has provided $200 million in Strengthening Community College grants since 2021, supporting quality workforce programs around the country.
• The Department of Labor released the High Road Training Program Map to spotlight high-quality training programs and show where they are located relative to projects mobilized by the Investing in America agenda.
• In January, the White House announced new commitments to its Advanced Manufacturing Sprint, including 150 new advanced manufacturing-related Registered Apprenticeship programs and occupations have been created or are newly under development, and more than 4,700 new apprentices hired in advanced manufacturing occupations.

Making place-based workforce investments so every community can meet its foundational labor needs
In addition to the nine Investing in America Workforce Hubs that are training residents for growing industries like clean energy and manufacturing, the Biden-Harris Administration has:

• Announced the designation of 31 communities across the country as Regional Innovation and Technology Hubs (Tech Hubs).
• Announced the 22 finalists of the Distressed Area Recompete Pilot Program. Recompete will invest $200 million in economic and workforce development projects that connect workers to good jobs in geographically diverse and persistently distressed communities across the country. 
• Stood up the National Semiconductor Training Center, which will deploy $5 billion in semiconductor-related research, development, and workforce needs to deliver on the CHIPS and Science Act.
• Invested tens of billions of dollars from the American Rescue Plan in workforce development strategies. Through the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, which provided funding to every single local government across the country, more than 2,000 state and local governments have invested over $13 billion in workforce development and worker supports projects.
• Funded 32 coalitions across the country through the American Rescue Plan’s $500 million Good Jobs Challenge. As of December 2023, over 11,000 participants have entered training programs as a direct result of the program and thousands of workers have secured good, quality jobs in high-demand industries like construction, manufacturing, clean tech, forestry, and healthcare.

Boosting job quality to support recruitment and retention

• For the first time in nearly 40 years, the Department of Labor updated its Davis-Bacon regulations to modernize and strengthen prevailing wage rates for workers on federally funded construction projects, which will raise wages for 1 million construction workers over time.
• The National Labor Relations Board issued a decision announcing a new framework for union representation proceedings—where if an employer commits any unfair labor practices during a representation election, the Board will order the employer to recognize and bargain with the union, rather than re-running the election.
• The Department of Energy is requiring grant applicants to submit Community Benefits Plans to access Investing in America funding.
• Nearly all of the significant construction programs contained in President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, CHIPS and Science Act, and Inflation Reduction Act require or strongly incentivize the use of Davis-Bacon prevailing wages.
• The Inflation Reduction Act offers incentives that increase the value of clean energy tax credits by five times if employers pay prevailing wages and employ registered apprentices.
• The Department of Commerce required major CHIPS and Science Act awardees provide high-quality child care to their employees.
• The American Rescue Plan provided $24 billion to help child care providers keep their doors open – including over $2 billion for higher pay, hiring or retention bonuses, or other expanded benefits for care workers. Recent analysis shows that this funding led to an increase in the labor force participation rate of mothers with young children of about 3 percentage points relative to similar groups.

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