Value of Worker Training Programs to Small Business.

摘要

With the unemployment rate still hovering at low levels, small businesses are finding it difficult to recruit and retain qualified workers. This problem is compounded by the lack of industry-specific training for unemployed workers who have been displaced from their jobs in industries experiencing economic slowdown and by the many individuals who are reentering the job market after exhausting eligibility for government transfer programs. One of the ways that governments deal with these problems is by setting up training and retraining programs. Through these programs, workers are supposed to become more qualified for jobs currently available in the changing economy. Unfortunately, very little is known about the experiences of small businesses with these programs. What we do know comes primarily from the 1992 SBA Training Survey, which found that while only half of businesses with less than 25 employees had heard of government training programs, over three-quarters of businesses with 500 or more employees had heard of government training programs. Firm size differences in the percentage of firms that had hired a worker using one of these programs were even greater. Only 16% of firms with less than 25 workers had ever hired a worker through government training programs, compared to 44% of firms with 500 or more workers.