NJCA’s Statement on
ETA’s Job Corps Transparency Report

For Immediate Release | April 26, 2025

According to the 2025 “Job Corps Transparency Report” released by the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employment and Training Administration, the average cost per graduate is nearly three times higher now than in a report conducted during the first Trump Administration. However, the funding Congress appropriates for Job Corps operations has remained essentially flat.

This inflated cost per graduate is the result of misguided regulations introduced in recent years that have caused student attrition to increase and graduations to decline. These policies include:

1. 1. Requiring high school graduates who enroll for career and technical education to instead participate in remedial academic courses until they are effectively “college ready,” regardless of whether that aligns with their career goals
   2. Restrictive leave policies that have made it impossible for some students, including young parents, to simultaneously remain in Job Corps and meet their family obligations
   3. Requiring Job Corps campuses to expel students for infractions as minor as being late to class
   4. COVID policies, some still in place, that have negatively affected enrollments and student retention

Nonetheless students continue to find success through Job Corps. Last year, DOL set a goal of median annual wages of $30,800 for our students, most of whom dropped out of high school and had never been employed. Job Corps exceeded that goal. Rigorous studies have demonstrated that Job Corps has positive long-term impacts on the employment and earnings of young people from economically disadvantaged rural and urban communities. Through Job Corps they are more likely to earn a high school equivalency, earn a vocational credential, be less reliant on future public assistance, and earn higher wages.

The National Job Corps Association (NJCA) is committed to reforming Job Corps in line with goals of the President’s Executive Order on Modernizing American Workforce Programs. In recent months, Job Corps achieved more than $100 million in cost savings many of which were reforms recommended by the NJCA. Additional policy reforms, including those in the bipartisan A Stronger Workforce for America Act that passed the House last year, are necessary. We are eager to strip away unneeded regulations and get back to what has earned Job Corps’ bipartisan support: a focus on skilled trades and student outcomes.

The NJCA was proud to endorse Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s nomination as Secretary of Labor because as a congresswoman she championed Job Corps and reforms such as those included in the A Stronger Workforce for America Act. We look forward to working with Secretary Chavez-DeRemer to effectuate the goals of the President’s executive order, by undoing counterproductive regulations, bringing Job Corps’ cost per graduate back down, and ensuring Job Corps’ effectiveness for young American workers.

Please click here to download a copy of this statement.