To remind state workforce agencies (SWAs) that Federal law requires all states to participate in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Treasury Offset Program (TOP) to recover delinquent unemployment compensation (UC) debts for benefit overpayments due to fraud, benefit overpayments due to a claimant’s failure to report earnings, and delinquent UC taxes.

The Department of Labor (DOL) invites the workforce development system to participate in the Tools for America’s Job Seekers Challenge (hereafter called the “Challenge”). The Challenge seeks to help jobseekers and workforce development professionals identify and use online job search and career advancement tools. The Challenge utilizes an innovative method called crowdsourcing to allow jobseekers and workforce development professionals to recommend and comment on job search and career advancement tools. The effort is a collaboration among the White House, the Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA), IdeaScale.com, job-related online tool providers, workforce development professionals, and jobseekers.

To provide sequestration rules for Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 to State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) that apply to mandatory Unemployment Insurance (UI) programs and information on how the U.S. Department of Labor (Department) will apply those rules. These rules include the application of sequestration on delayed benefit payments for prior FYs and the resulting administrative costs.

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) announces the release and availability of four reports on the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program:

• Initial Implementation of the Trade Act of 2002;
• Assessment, Case Management, and Post-Training Assistance for TAA Participants;
• Linkages between TAA, One-Stop Career Center Partners, and Economic Development Agencies; and
• Rapid Response and TAA.

To ensure that 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) will increase for calendar year 2019 and 2) COLA information is located on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) website.

To announce the release and availability of ETA Occasional Paper: The Power of Partnership: American Regions Collaborating for Economic Competitiveness, 2009 Generation I WIRED Interim Evaluation Report

The Employment and Training Administration (ETA) is providing a renewed form ETA 9178 for State Workforce Agencies and other applicable grant recipients to document the quarterly progress toward completing their supplemental grant activities. This form is renewed for grantee quarterly reporting through August 31, 2021.

To clarify the definition of “school dropout” as it pertains to YouthBuild program participants under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA)

This guidance provides information to States and grantees of the U.S. Departments of Labor (DOL) and Education (ED) (collectively "the Departments") on the performance accountability system requirements set forth in section 116 of WIOA. Specifically, this guidance provides information about the guidelines States must use in developing procedures for ensuring the data submitted are valid and reliable.

To provide State Workforce Agencies (SWAs) with a revised version of ET Handbook 336, 18th Edition, Change 2