Did You Know...

**Written by Doug Powers

Five hundred million dollars from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (better known to Michelle’s readers as “Porkulus”) went to the US Department of Labor earmarked for “green jobs training programs,” and $490 million of that has already been awarded.

How’s that working out?

According to the most recent data from the BlueGreen Alliance and the Economic Policy Institute, there were 3,586 graduates of Department of Labor-funded green job training programs as of Sept. 30, 2010, but only 466 entered new jobs upon completion of the program.

Over a million bucks per “green” job trainee that was able to find a job as of last fall… not bad by the government’s definition of efficiency.

On the upside, there’s still $10 million unspent stimulus for green jobs training programs, which, if my math is correct, means that there are about nine green jobs remaining. There’s a good possibility that most of those green jobs will somehow revolve around helping the government answer the question, “what the heck is a green job, anyway?”

**Written by Doug Powers

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