JobsNowSF!
Putting San Francisco Back to Work
The Mayor announcing JobsNowSF!
In August 2009, Mayor Newsom announced the creation of a new San Francisco jobs program – JOBSNOWSF! – JobsNowSF provides federal stimulus funds for businesses to hire employees they need, benefitting local businesses and people hurt by the economic downturn. The JobsNowSF program has received approximately $25 million of federal stimulus funding to significantly expand subsidized employment opportunities for those looking for work, with a goal of placing 1,000 participants in jobs between May 2009 and September 2010. To date, the program has succeeded in putting over 3,500 working families back into jobs.
California has received $1.8 billion in federal funds from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA), most of which has been passed through to counties. While JobsNowSF had an initial goal of 1,000 jobs, federal funding received by the state was not used by the majority of California counties. This permitted a program expansion to over 3,500 job placements.
This program puts unemployed and underemployed parents into good jobs.
ARRA included $5 billion nationwide to create the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Emergency Contingency Fund (TANF-ECF), which provided federal funds to pay for 80 percent of the costs of subsidized employment programs.
FAQs
How is JobsNowSF funded?
JobsNowSF is funded by federal dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Emergency Contingency Fund (TANF-ECF), created by ARRA, covers 80 percent of the costs of subsidized employment programs. Employers who hire someone through the program are required to pay the remaining 20 percent of the costs. However, the training and supervision provided by employers may be considered a 20 percent match. Therefore, federal funding effectively compensates employers for 100 percent of employee wages. In San Francisco, these funds are administered by the San Francisco Human Services Agency (SF-HSA).
Where can cities apply for subsidized employment program funding?
It is likely that states have already received the funding that San Francisco used to develop JobsNowSF. Through TANF-ECF, $5 billion were distributed nationwide. With your TANF-ECF funding, you can create a program similar to JobsNowSF.
How long will the JobsNowSF initiative last?
San Francisco has been actively lobbying Congress to extend the program. Every state in the country should be demanding that this funding remain to help people stay employed. The federal stimulus funds are only available until September 30, 2010. If funding is not extended, SF-HSA hopes that employees placed through JobsNowSF will have become valuable team members by that point and will be retained. If they are not retained, JobsNowSF participants will exit the program with a stable employment history, leaving them better positioned to obtain unsubsidized jobs when the stimulus period ends.
What are JobsNowSF’s participant eligibility requirements?
The following are required for approval to participate in JobsNowSF: (1) San Francisco residency, (2) parent (custodial or non-custodial) or guardian of a minor child, (3) a household income less than 200% of the federal poverty level in the past month, and (4) to be legally permitted to work in the United States.
How does the City and County of San Francisco administer the JobsNowSF program?
JobsNowSF is run through San Francisco’s Human Servcies Agency, the county’s social services agency. SF-HSA solicits applications from nonprofits, CBO’s, private businesses, and city departments to find employment opportunities for job seekers. Forms that that employers use to apply for the program and request reimbursement can be found at: http://www.sfhsa.org/1281.htm. Likewise, SF-HSA solicits applications from job seekers in order to refer them to appropriate positions. Employers, then, have the opportunity to interview, screen, and select potential employees.
What kinds of jobs are offered by JobsNowSF?
JobsNowSF structured its employment offerings according to the varying skill sets with which applicants arrived. There are three placement tracks depending on participants job skills and experience:
- (1) Transitional employment is intended for TANF (CalWORKs) clients who may have had minimal job skills or experience or other barriers to employment
- (2) Public service trainees are placed within city departments and are intended for participants with some job skills, but who require more structure and support than a private sector placement. City departments include: the San Francisco Human Services Agency, the Public Utilities Commission, Recreation & Parks, the Department of Public Works, the Housing Authority, the Department of the Environment, the Superior Court, the Municipal Transportation Agency, and the Port of San Francisco.
- (3) Wage subsidized private sector (non- and for-profit) placements are for those who possess solid job skills and experience. The positions range from entry level clerical jobs to high level technical jobs.
Is there a minimum or maximum wage for participants in the JobsNowSF program?
Yes. Participants in the JobsNowSF program have a minimum wage equal to that of the City and County of San Francisco, which is $9.79. The wage reimbursement is capped at the Area Median Household Income, which is approximately $75,000 annually.
How are participants recruited?
Participants are recruited through the San Francisco Human Services Agency, One Stop Career Centers, community-based organizations and by employers themselves. All potential participants are referred to SF-HSA and screened for eligibility.
Are there any costs for employers?
Yes. In addition to providing a 20 percent match in the form of supervision and training of JobsNowSF participants, employers are required to pay for payroll taxes and related wage costs such as Social Security, workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, and employee benefits.
The San Francisco Human Services Agency also asks employers to sign an agreement that they make a good faith effort to retain JobsNowSF participants as permanent employees upon termination of the wage subsidy.
What other supports does JobsNowSF offer participants?
JobsNowSF builds upon several successful transitional jobs programs already in place at the San Francisco Human Services Agency, which were designed to help unemployed individuals address barriers to employment, develop soft skills, gain work experience and progress toward self-sufficiency. Eligible participants undergo an expedited vocational assessment to determine their skills and interests, after which they are assigned to one of the placement tracks described above.
For transitional employment participants, employees work 32 hours a week at a local nonprofit agency. Seven of the 32 hours are spent in class working on basic skills, job readiness, GED, computer skills upgrade, or ESL. The class activities are intended to meet participants’ individual needs and barriers to employment. For public service trainee participants, who require different skills, weekly career development courses are offered on a voluntary basis. These include: career planning, goal setting, learning the written and unwritten rules of the workplace, resume writing, job search tips and techniques, and interviewing skills. Those who are placed in the private sector are deemed to have sufficiently developed skills for employment.
Where is JobsNowSF today?
3,620 job placements have been made. Of these placements, approximately 25 percent have been placed in transitional employment positions, 25 percent in public sector training positions, 30 percent in private sector for-profit positions, and 20 percent in private sector non-profit positions.
About 45% of participants are TANF clients. Nine months after the inception of JobsNowSF, San Francisco has seen a 343% increase in welfare exits due to income. To date, approximately $55 million in wages have come into the San Francisco economy.
For employers, JobsNowSF has had a positive impact. It has been reported that: 82% of employers are satisfied with participants’ job performance; 82% of businesses run more efficiently; and 90% of employers have indicated that the payroll taxes and other costs incurred are worth the benefit of participants’ labor.
Process
1. Are You Eligibile for TANF-ECF?
TANF’s Emergency Fund was appropriated $5 billion covering fiscal year (FY) 2009 and FY 2010. States, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and federally-recognized Indian Tribes and Alaska Native Organizations that are operating TANF programs are eligible to apply for these funds.
To be eligible, a jurisdiction must meet at least one of the following three conditions for a quarter during FY
2009 or FY 2010:
- (a.) The jurisdiction’s average monthly assistance caseload in a quarter is higher than its average monthly assistance caseload for the corresponding quarter in the Emergency Fund base year (i.e., FY 2007 or FY 2008), and its expenditures for basic assistance in the quarter are higher than its expenditures for such assistance in the corresponding quarter of the Emergency Fund base year;
- (b.) The jurisdiction’s expenditures for non-recurrent short-term benefits in the quarter are higher than its expenditures for such benefits in the corresponding quarter of the Emergency Fund base year (i.e., FY 2007 or FY 2008);
- (c.) The jurisdiction’s expenditures for subsidized employment in the quarter are higher than such expenditures in the corresponding quarter of the Emergency Fund base year (i.e., FY 2007 or FY 2008).
To find out if your state has already been approved for subsidized employment ECF funds, click here.
2. Design Your Program.
Before your program can get off the ground, there are several key program design questions you’ll have to answer:
- How many participants will your state/county serve? What is your goal?
- How will participants be recruited? How will they be certified as eligible?
- What are the budget implications? TANF-ECF funds will reimburse 80% of the cost of administering the program.
- How will the 20% match be covered?
- Which agency will administer the program?
- What other agencies/vendors might be involved?
- What is their experience/expertise in the field?
- What kinds of employment opportunities will you provide? Are there transitional employment opportunities that you can tap into? Be prepared to place participants with a wide range of job histories and skill sets into jobs.
- Who will be the employer of record?
- What type of employers will you target? What industries might you include or target?
- How will your county recruit them?
- How many hours will a client work?
- Is there a maximum allowable hourly wage? If so, what is it?
Before beginning the program, the Mayor initially set the goal of placing 1,000 San Franciscans in jobs using ECF funding. Due to the program’s initial success, this goal was soon doubled to 2,000. The continued success of the program and the demand for jobs encouraged the tripling of the program’s capacity to 3,000, and more recently 3,500. The City’s Human Services Agency, which works with low-income clients who are in search of employment, implemented the program.
3. Get Employers on Board.
Designate a person or persons in your agency who can reach out to employers directly. Employers have a lot to gain from this program, but they may have hesitations about accepting referrals from a government agency. Take the time to develop materials that answer employer questions and that make it clear what an advantage it is to them to hire participants. San Francisco reimburses 100% of the cost of wages for any JobsNowSF participants hired by a for-profit or non-profit employer. For employers to participate in the program, it is required that they provide a 20 percent match to federal funds. In San Francisco, the training, supervision, and professional support provided by employers is considered an in-kind 20 percent match.Consider hiring a marketing firm that can help you “sell” the program to the local business community. Create internal business processes that allow you to respond to businesses quickly and efficiently.
4. Outreach to Participants.
TANF recipients and other needy parents will likely be eager to get jobs, but you have to make sure they know about the program. How will new TANF applicants be informed about the program? How will existing participants be informed? When and where can participants come to find out more about the program?
In San Francisco, we hold regular sessions to inform potential participants about the program, and have set up a toll-free phone number for participants to call to ask questions. The City has also sent out flyers to all our clients enrolled in CalWORKs, California’s TANF program, and outreached to our community-based partners to let them know about the program.
5. Match Participants to Employers.
To make job placements work for both the employer and the participant, your agency will have to have a good understanding of the work experience and job history of the job seekers, and the work requirements of the job openings. Designate staff who will be able to certify participants’ eligibility for the program and assess their employability so you can make good referrals to employers. In addition, find creative ways for employers and participating job seekers to find each other on their own. San Francisco holds regular job fairs so that job seekers can introduce themselves to employers, and em- ployers can quickly screen the applicants themselves. In addition, San Francisco has set up a voucher system. Participants are issued a voucher by the City that certify them as eligible, and let potential employers know that if they hire those participants, the wages will be free. These vouchers let the job seekers become their own job developers, and helps inform additional employers know about the program.
List of Selected Stakeholders
- Local Chamber of Commerce
- For-profit and non-profit businesses
- Low-income, unemployed and under-employed citizens
- Social services agency
- Other government agencies
- Community organizations serving low-income populations
- One Stop centers and other employment centers
Toolkit
Download JobsNowSF! Toolkit in pdf format
Download Adobe Reader to view toolkit
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