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The executive director of the Jackson Area Manufacturers Association recently attended a White House gathering focused on ways to get the long-term unemployed back to work.
Bill Rayl said the Jan. 31 event was part of President Barack Obama’s “Opportunity for All: Ready to Work” initiative.
Obama and Vice President Joe Biden opened the event, and Obama announced a $150 million program to support ready-to-work partnerships, Rayl said.
A panel discussion by people who went through various job training programs and got jobs was moderated by U.S. Secretary of Labor Tom Perez, Rayl said.
A panel discussion on partnerships to help the unemployed find jobs included Gene Sperling, director of the National Economic Council and assistant to the president for economic policy, and Penny Pritzker, U.S. secretary of commerce, Rayl said.
Those events were followed by a meeting of the National Skills Coalition Leadership Council, of which he is a member, Rayl said.
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