WASHINGTON, D.C., MAY 29, 2025 – Job Corps, the nation’s largest residential career training and education program, has been ordered to shut down campuses, terminate staff and, most troublingly, remove the tens of thousands of 16 to 24-year-olds who reside on those campuses. More than 4,500 of those students were homeless before joining Job Corps and potentially face a perilous future. That figure amounts to 20% of current students but is as high as 50% at some campuses.
“Job Corps has transformed the lives of millions of Americans,” said Donna Hay, President & CEO of the National Job Corps Association. “We agree with Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins that Job Corps saves lives. This decision, based on a deeply flawed report, needlessly endangers the futures and the lives of thousands and potentially millions more young Americans.”
The program, which operates campuses in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is primarily residential and has campuses in rural and urban areas. It helps students acquire industry-recognized credentials, high school diplomas or equivalents, and the social and employability skills needed to enter careers, the U.S. Armed Forces, apprenticeships, or post-secondary education. Comprehensive studies indicate that Job Corps increases participants’ earnings and decreases their future reliance on public assistance.
“Job Corps was one of the programs I was most excited about overseeing as Secretary of Labor,” said Marty Walsh, who served as the 29th U.S. Secretary of Labor. “It’s a hand up, not a handout, empowering some of the most disadvantaged young Americans to make the most of their potential.”
The decision is based on an unsound analysis of the program based on incorrect and misleading information and, at best, lacking necessary context. The “transparency report” which was developed by a DOGE staffer examines a year when Department of Labor rules related to the Covid-19 pandemic limited enrollments in order to mistakenly assert that the program has grown too expensive. In reality, the budget for Job Corps campus operations has not been increased for 8 years, despite inflation. “This is a calculated and—not transparent—but deceptive report,” Senator Jack Reed observed during a recent Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.
The need for Job Corps is clear: there are currently over 14,000 applicants who have been left in limbo and their careers on hold due the enrollment process being halted. Many of those young Americans have been left homeless and without a clear path to improve their circumstances. George Foreman IV, son of the boxing legend who was one of Job Corps’ most notable alumni, believes it’s important that students have the same opportunity his father had. “My father’s life was transformed by Job Corps. Without Job Corps, there would be no boxing champion, no entrepreneur, no pastor, no story to tell.”
The NJCA is a national member trade organization representing Job Corps campuses and their staff; the youth service providers who manage the campuses; business, labor, community and volunteer organizations, and the tens of thousands of students who Job Corps annually serves.
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Contact:
Mindie Barnett
856-452-3536
