To provide the workforce development system with information related to the 2014 General Education Development (GED®) Test series.

To provide guidance to states regarding the change in the definition of “paying state” for an unemployment compensation (UC) combined-wage claim (CWC) filed under the Interstate Arrangement for Combining Employment and Wages.

1. Purpose. To respond to inquiries from state workforce agencies about the correct assignment of Federal civilian service and Federal wages for purposes of establishing monetary entitlement for unemployment compensation (UC), including Unemployment Compensation for Federal Employees (UCFE).

To inform states that the UI Benefits and Adjudication National Training Forum is scheduled for April 14-16, 2009, in Portland, Oregon, and to encourage states to participate in the conference.

To ensure states are aware that: 1) the social security survivors and old age retirement annuities and the Federal civilian pensions annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increased to 1.7 percent for calendar year 2013; and 2) COLA information may be found on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Web site.

To announce the release and the availability of the following Youth Opportunity (YO) Grant Initiative items:

• Youth Opportunity Grant Initiative: Summary and Implications
• Youth Opportunity Grant Initiative: Executive Summary
• Youth Opportunity Grant Initiative: Ethnographic Evaluation Final Report
• Youth Opportunity Grant Initiative: Impact and Synthesis Report
• Youth Opportunity Grant Initiative: Management Information System Final Report
• Youth Opportunity Grant Initiative: Process Evaluation Final Report
• Youth Opportunity Grant Initiative: Appendices
• Youth Opportunity Grant Initiative: Public Data Set

To ensure states are aware of the locality-based salary rates for certain Federal civilian employees.

To advise states of an expansion of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation, 2008 (EUC08) program and to provide operating instructions for its implementation.

To advise state agencies of plans to improve, streamline, and automate UCX claims processing, including plans to automate the UCX claim notification and the Quarterly Detailed Benefits Payment Data (QDBPD) by providing them in electronic format to the Federal military branches for unemployment compensation (UC) purposes.

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) announces the release and availability of a report entitled: Implementation Analysis of High-Growth Job Training Initiative Programs.