Jackson Free Press

Gov. Haley Barbour is attempting to combat dreary economic news with a month-long publicity push called "Let's Get Working Mississippi." The campaign is meant to draw attention to job training opportunities through the state's WIN Job Centers, which connect employers and potential employees.

"Most of the news coverage and everything that people have been focusing on is the unemployment rate," Les Range, the state Department of Employment Security's new executive director, told the Jackson Free Press today. "There are other things going on, other than the unemployment rate. We're turning up the volume to let people know about the programs and services that are available for people that need a new job."

Those services include a re-employment initiative that will use a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor to assist 10,000 people in the state unemployment insurance program who are seeking new jobs.

"It's a combination of low-cost, no-cost programs and initiatives that are already underway," Range said of the month-long campaign.

While not technically a part of the publicity campaign, the state's recently announced STEPS program is designed to provide a more immediate boost to state's employment. That program, which Barbour announced Sept. 15, will use $43 million in federal stimulus funds to help businesses hire permanent employees. The state will partially fund up to six months of a new employee's salary, with its contribution stepping down from a full 100 percent in the first two months to 25 percent in the final month.

Stan McMorris, Director of Customer Operations for MDES, said that the program could generate 3,500 new permanent jobs in the state. The state hopes to launch the program this month but is waiting for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is administering the federal funds, to approve the program.

"My understanding is that there are meetings that are going on right now to get final approval for that," McMorris said. "We're hoping over the next few days we'll have approval for that program. HHS personnel want to make sure that everything is in place."

Like all funds from the stimulus package, the money for STEPS comes with an expiration date. Assuming that it gets federal approval to start the program in October, the state must obligate its funds by Sept. 30, 2010. Businesses will then have until March 31, 2011, to spend the money.

"The STEPS program will provide much-needed aid during this recession by enabling businesses to hire new workers, thus enhancing the economic engines of our local communities," Barbour said in a Sept. 15 statement.

Barbour's embrace of stimulus funds for the STEPS program stands in stark contrast to his attitude towards a $56 million stimulus chunk this spring. He refused to accept the money, which would have extended or expanded unemployment insurance to 39,600 Mississippians, arguing that it would have raised unemployment insurance taxes on businesses by $16 million after the stimulus dollars ran out.

The STEPS program is a more effective means of putting people to work, Barbour spokesman Dan Turner said.

"In some sense it's like paying (businesses) for training them—the more they know, the less the state has to supplement that pay," Turner said. "It takes someone off the unemployment rolls; it puts them on the tax rolls."