U.S. Department of Labor Blog

In honor of National Mentoring Month this January, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability Employment Policy Jennifer Sheehy shares the importance of mentors in her life following a 1994 spinal cord injury. 

Air Force veteran Bethany Stafford was ready for a new career. But she needed a little help translating her skills and preparing for the civilian job market. 

Mycole Slater knows the definition of “hard work” and “determination”— it was simply a lack of opportunity that was the primary barrier to financial independence for the 29-year-old mother of three young boys. 

As more baby boomers retire, many industries − including construction − will experience a massive loss of skill sets built over the years.

Lilia Navarette worked hard and learned a lot when she was dispatched from her Job Corps center in Nampa, Idaho, earlier this year to help support efforts to fight back the Pioneer Fire northeast of Boise.

After graduating from high school, Ranson, West Virginia, native Sara Simpson enrolled at nearby Shepherd University with plans to pursue nursing. But she had to work two jobs just to afford tuition and struggled to keep up with her coursework. The juggling act became too much and she had to take a break. Her mother, who worked at the Harpers Ferry Job Corps Center, encouraged her to apply to Job Corps – a Labor Department program that provides free job training and education for young people.

Nobody would want to drive a vehicle that wasn’t properly maintained and lacked important safety features. Yet at one shipping company that operates nationwide, Central Transport LLC, workers were required to operate unsafe forklifts.

Debbie Currie, a 55-year-old grandmother of five, had worked a variety of retail jobs over the years while raising her three children. Several years ago, a close friend who was a member of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 4 invited her to a union function. There Debbie learned about Local 4’s apprenticeship program, and looking for a more rewarding career path, she decided to apply. For the last three and half years Debbie has been working on the Route 79/Braga Bridge Improvements Project in Fall River, Massachusetts. The project is one of the five largest projects of a $3 billion effort to reduce the number of structurally deficient bridges in the state, and is a mega construction project that receives federal funding

It’s a fact: our workforce is aging. By 2024, nearly 1 in 4 people in the labor force are projected to be age 55 or over.