By STEWART M. POWELL
WASHINGTON BUREAU
June 4, 2010, 7:57PM
WASHINGTON — Job transition assistance is on its way to Houston-area aerospace workers facing potential job losses from the retirement of NASA’s shuttle fleet and threatened cancellation of the moon program, the Texas Workforce Commission said on Friday.
Spokeswoman Ann Hatchitt said the agency is preparing a grant request for $5 million in emergency federal assistance to enable Workforce Solutions for the 13-county Houston-Galveston region to provide employment services for an estimated 450 NASA-related employees and contractors who may lose jobs tied to JSC.
In addition, $1.7 million from a recent $10 million statewide grant by the Department of Labor also will be used to help an estimated 250 JSC-linked workers who face potential layoffs, Hatchitt added.
Thousands may be cut
The Houston region could lose as many as 7,000 jobs at Johnson Space Center and among NASA contractors as a result of threatened cutbacks in the manned space program sought by President Barack Obama.
The requested assistance draws upon the same U.S. Labor Department program that provided Florida’s Brevard Workforce Development Board Inc. $15 million in emergency assistance to help roughly 3,200 contract and subcontract workers along Florida’s Space Coast.
The Florida-based organization applied for the money in mid-May.
“The bottom line is that the application has to be made for the money to go out,” said a Labor Department official. “It’s not a case where we target areas with displaced workers and hand this money out.”
National emergency grants are given at the discretion of the Cabinet-level labor secretary for states suffering major worker dislocations of at least 50 people from companies, plants or as a result of natural disasters.
The emergency assistance provides eligible workers employment transition assistance that includes career guidance, job search skills training, resume review, skills assessment and labor market information.
stewart.powell@chron.com
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