(Riverton, WY) – On May 29, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced that effective June 30, it will begin a “phased pause in operations at contractor-operated Job Corps centers nationwide,” a decision that is already having immediate consequences on the local Wind River Job Corps in Riverton.
Job Corps is a program administered by the DOL that “offers education and vocational training to young men and women ages 16-24.”
Through the program, students are placed in state and union apprenticeships, entry-level jobs, and advanced training positions in Wyoming and across the country.
The DOL’s release states that the decision “follows an internal review of the program’s outcome and structure and will be carried out in accordance with available funding, the statutory framework established under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, and congressional notification requirements.”
The release further explains that the DOL’s decision “aligns with the President’s FY 2026 budget proposal and reflects the Administration’s commitment to ensure federal workforce investments deliver meaningful results for both students and taxpayers.”
“Job Corps was created to help young adults build a pathway to a better life through education, training, and community,” said Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer. “However, a startling number of serious incident reports and our in-depth fiscal analysis reveal the program is no longer achieving the intended outcomes that students deserve.
The release clarifies the “startling number of serious incident reports” that Chavez-DeRemer referenced was the data shared below, which is a summary of the overall findings from the DOL’s Employment and Training Administration Job Corps Transparency Report, which “analyzed the financial performance and operational costs of the most recently available metrics of program year 2023.”
- Average Graduation Rate (WIOA Definition): 38.6%
- Average Cost Per Student Per Year: $80,284.65
- Average Total Cost Per Graduate (WIOA Definition): $155,600.74
- Post separation, participants earn $16,695 annually on average.
- The total number of Serious Incident Reports for program year 2023: 14,913 infractions.
- Inappropriate Sexual Behavior and Sexual Assaults Reported: 372
- Acts of Violence Reported: 1,764
- Breaches of Safety or Security: 1,167
- Reported Drug Use: 2,702
- Total Hospital Visits: 1,808
The DOL also stated in the release that “We remain committed to ensuring all participants are supported through this transition and connected with the resources they need to succeed as we evaluate the program’s possibilities.” Currently, the national Job Corps site redirects to this page, which outlines opportunities “beyond Job Corps.”
Locals Advocate for Wind River Job Corps
Before the announcement of the Job Corps pause was officially made, three Wind River Job Corps employees spoke at a May 22 Wyoming Legislature Select Committee on Tribal Relations meeting, including Jerry Prejean, Business Engagement Coordinator and Work-Based Learning Specialist; Andrea Martinez-Watson, the Foundations Instructor; and Jared Baldes, a former Carpentry Instructor who now serves as the Field Coordinator for the Carpentry Programs throughout the Rocky Mountain region.
Tribal Relations Committee members who spoke during the meeting included Senator Cale Case and Representatives Ivan Posey and Pepper Ottman.
Baldes shared some statistics and accounts that he says go against the “very wrong” national narrative that “Job Corps isn’t working.”
“Nationally, we place 85% of our completers in jobs. 75% of those students, those completers are actually going into the trades they train for,” Baldes stated. “…Right now, our students are graduating at $19.30 an hour. These are real numbers. These are numbers that come out every month that we’re held accountable (for). …Job Corps is working and it’s very effective and it’s changing lives.”
“… That’s a pretty good statistic. I don’t know that my law school class had that high of a statistic. 75.4% are going into jobs that match their training,” Riverton Mayor Tim Hancock shared at the May 20 City Council meeting two days prior, where those same numbers were discussed.
“…I received a degree in criminal justice. I did not work in the field of criminal justice immediately upon graduation… Having a job that’s actually in your line of work is incredible. And that percentage, I think, really speaks for itself. “
Mayor Hancock noted that specifically for carpenters, “the pre-apprenticeship graduates average 21.57 per hour… and they’re placed directly into the United Brotherhood of Carpenters registered apprenticeship program, which directly works towards apprenticeship.”
Mayor Hancock called the Job Corps pause a “complete destruction, for lack of any better word for it.”
“The budget (from Congress) proposes no funding for the Job Corps program, which would just completely leave us out of many jobs that are here, and the opportunity for education that we have here and collaboration that our local Wind River Job Corps is involved in every day,” Mayor Hancock remarked. “Our Job Corps students have become an incredible part of the community. Our instructors are an incredible part of the community.”
(Mayor Hancock also encouraged residents to reach out to Representative Harriet Hageman and Senators Cynthia Lummis and John Barrasso, to speak in favor of Job Corps.)
“I understand that … this is the state delegation, but you’re also the government closest to the people,” Baldes went on to comment at the Committee meeting. “So any support we can have from all of you would be very vital for us as this moves forward, in support of keeping Job Corps.”
As Mayor Hancock mentioned, Baldes noted that there are “150 jobs right here in Fremont County that are on the line.”
“I’m here talking for Job Corps in general because of the students and the enrollees and what I’ve seen throughout the Rocky Mountains, but also there’s 150 jobs in Fremont county that are on the line as well.”
Baldes further explained that Wind River Job Corps currently has 198 students, 44% of whom are from Wyoming, and 17% of whom are Native American.
In his trade alone, Baldes shared that he has “placed 15 students this year into jobs, six of them Native American.”
“Five of them have gone into apprenticeships. We had two start their apprenticeship down in Cheyenne. …They are making outstanding wages. Their healthcare is taken care of. They will begin putting into their pensions next year… These students are very successful. They’re going to be successful. That’s just a small thing of what Wind River Job Corps in general is doing, but what it’s doing nationwide as well. They’re making 20-plus dollars an hour and doing very well for themselves.”
Prejean added that in addition to working with the communities in Riverton and Lander, and on the Wind River Reservation through the Wind River Development Fund, the Wind River Job Corps was working “very closely” with the construction of the nuclear reactor plant out in Kemmerer.
“…That will be affected as well. That’s just Wyoming. All of the states are going to be affected if Job Corps closes. …It’s going to be more layoffs, more misplaced youth (who are) at risk. …It’s just going to be a domino effect that’s not going to be beneficial.”
“We (the national Job Corps program) had our 60-year anniversary. It is working. …It’s been around for 60 years,” Prejean later concluded.
In terms of the work with the Kemmerer plant, Baldes added that the “director of construction” told Wind River Job Corps students that “because they’re going to want 30% apprenticeship placement” on the project, he expected “every one of them to be working for him (and) working for Bechtel out on that project.”
“…We are very much involved in that and very much involved in placing that 30% apprenticeship placement, as we are a pre-apprenticeship program throughout Job Corps,” Baldes stated.
Later, when Baldes was providing Senator Case with context regarding the DOL’s pause on the Job Corps program, he referenced the transparency report.
“…That transparency report highlights the bottom 10 centers in the nation. …For the ($19.30 an hour) wage I gave you, what (the report) doesn’t do is …account for the wages of military placements, nor does it account for students going to college, because we have multiple pathways for our students so they can go to college, they can go military, they can go entry-level, or they could go apprenticeship. …They took the bottom 10 centers to justify that Job Corps is … a failed experiment.”
(The transparency report noted that Wind River Job Corps Center employed 307 students at an average annual cost per enrollee of $53,199.73, and that the Center’s graduation rate was 32.6%, slightly lower than the reported national average of 38.6%. The report also stated that between 2017 and 2023, the Wind River Job Corps Center achieved an average placement rate of 76.6%, slightly above the national average of 72.4%.)
Representative Posey then recalled the origin of the Wind River Job Corps, which he said was the result of “the efforts (of) the late Senator Enzi and the late Sandy Barton as well as the late Eddie Wadda, a tribal member.” Posey added that he and his brother even conducted cedar blessings for the dorms and students.
“I hope that delegation realizes that it’s been a boon to (the) economy here and that it’s been a good thing for us, whether it’s tribal or non-tribal students,” Posey commented. “I’m not too sure what we could do in terms of federal funding, but I think we could really advocate to say it’s been good for us for the last 15 years, and that it changes people’s lives.”
“Wind River Job Corps is Wyoming’s pipeline for the trades,” Baldes then commented. “We do place students all over the state, not just in Riverton. …As we all know Wyoming is a very blue-collar state and we’ve always worked with our hands. So that …would be very unfortunate not to be able to continue that pipeline to small businesses and businesses around the state for these young men and women being trained by very good instructors.”
“…Out of 131 Job Corps, we are recognized by the National Job Corps association as number two,” Prejean added.
Representative Ottman then shared that she has been “very impressed” by what she has seen at Wind River Job Corps during her visits.
“It’s not all textbook, it’s hands-on. …Those instructors and the care and consideration and other things that are learned and taught up there were very impressive.”
Later on in the meeting, Baldes and Prejean shared about some of the local projects Wind River Job Corps students worked on, including laying concrete in Riverton last summer, the wheelchair ramp they recently built for a family in need in Shoshoni, ongoing work at the Wind River Heritage Center, helping fix a front-end loader and dump truck in Hudson, working on the baseball fields in Lander, and laying sod for the soccer fields in Riverton.
Martinez-Watson then shared that in her previous role as the Career Transition Readiness Specialist, she saw how Job Corps prepared the students for the various paths they could take.
“…All of our Job Corps nationwide work with each other. They can complete their basic training at our Job Corps… and then we can send them on to an advanced training program,” Martinez-Watson commented. “We just recently had a carpentry student that finished her carpentry trade and I just transferred her to a Job Corps in New York… She wants to be a drone pilot and eventually she wants to go to college for Engineering. So we’re not completely against college or anything like that. These kids are taking these opportunities and they’re building lives for themselves.”
Prejean then added that Wind River Job Corps also works very closely with Central Wyoming College.
“…A lot of the medical trade and the hospitality/culinary trade we work with the college on. …We have been working extremely close with (CWC President) Brad Tyndall (to become) more of an organized unit so that we can complement each other. They can send us students, we can send them students.”
Exactly one week after the Committee meeting, the DOL made the official announcement that the pause would take effect by June 30.
The address can be viewed in full below, and begins around the 2-hour and 37-minute mark.
Student Impacts
To meet the June 30 deadline, sources have shared with County 10 that students were told the move-out period would begin on June 23, but that some out-of-state students have already been “shipped home.” Those same sources stated that some students do not have a physical home to return to, leaving them effectively homeless. A source also stated that Wind River Job Corps staff have been advised to “not speak to the media.”
On May 31, two days after the pause announcement, County 10 was invited to a meeting at the Wind River Job Corps campus, where students were set to give testimonials about how Job Corps had positively impacted their lives.
When a County 10 reporter showed up at the security booth where visitors are checked in before entering the campus, the worker called in the request to her supervisor, who relayed the message from a Department of Labor employee that media were not allowed to attend the meeting.
A few student accounts were later shared with County 10, but despite their willingness to have their stories heard and names known, sources have also shared that students would be “kicked out if they caused any issues during this transition.”
It is unknown at this time what potential consequences students might face if/when the pause comes to an end, so out of respect to those students, County 10 has chosen to keep their accounts anonymous.
One out-of-state 21-year-old shared that before Job Corps, they were an “alcoholic” who was working up to 80 hours week in an unfulfilling job, but coming to Job Corps “guided” them to where they “need(ed) to be.”
“…what is the point of living life when you’re not doing something that you love? Job Corps is really teaching me how to become a man,” that student remarked. “After Job Corps closing, I don’t know what my plan is. …I don’t know what my future foretells.”
The student went on to share that they were initially told by administrators that they had until June 30 to prepare to leave, but they were actually “getting sent home earlier.”
“Some of us don’t have a place to go back to. I personally don’t. …It’s affecting all of us. …A lot of us don’t know what we are (going to) do, where we’re (going to) live. This is profoundly affecting us, and we deserve to at least be able to speak our mind and to share how Job Corps closing down is affecting us. We are the future and we are the youth. If society wants us to be prepared, then Job Corps should continue on.”
Another out-of-state student reiterated the claim that students were told they actually only had until June 6 to move out, which they said “does not give us enough time to get anything accomplished,” and that the pause has left them “homeless.” (Note: The June 6 move-out ultimatum has not been confirmed by County 10 at this time.)
That second student went on to remark that Job Corps helped them “mature more,” and that after waiting in limbo for a number of months for an instructor position in their field to be filled, they were “excited to get life going and back on track in order to improve (their) life outside of Job Corps,” when that instructor was hired.
But the pause means they will not get to graduate with a certificate.
“I’m praying and hoping to have people fight for us… to keep the center open. …I want to prove to myself and my family that I can do this, but I can’t do it without Job Corps’ help.”