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Obama team: Let people test jobs while getting benefits

By David Jackson, USA TODAY

The Obama administration is asking states to apply for a new program that would let people test out new jobs while still receiving unemployment benefits.

The "Bridge to Work" program is part of the payroll tax cut package that President Obama worked out with Congress earlier this year.

The Labor Department is offering to finance up to 10 demonstration projects, and opened the application process Thursday.

States will get help in developing programs that can help "put people back to work in the quickest. most efficient way," said Labor Secretary Hilda Solis.

President Obama and his aides are grappling with 8%-plus unemployment rates during an election year.

The "Bridge to Work" plan is based on a program in Georgia that has received Republican support.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., recommended the "Georgia Works" model in a letter to Obama in September.

As the Associated Press reports:

Under the (Georgia) plan, workers who have lost jobs can be placed in other temporary jobs as trainees for short periods to retain their skills or gain new ones while receiving jobless assistance. About a third of the time, those workers wind up getting hired full-time.

A number of states are combining unemployment benefits with on-the-job training, including North Carolina, New Hampshire, Utah and Missouri. ...

States that are chosen could get waivers from the federal government allowing them to tap their unemployment insurance accounts to pay for such costs as transportation for workers in temporary jobs.

The program has had mixed results in some states that have their own programs. Administration officials said they hope the waivers and assistance offered by the federal demonstration projects could help rectify any problems that have emerged.

A tight Obama-Romney race
Airline ad cites Secret Service scandal