The state Employment Security Department plans a 16 percent budget cut that will affect several divisions and result in layoffs, according to an email sent to employees this week from Commissioner Paul Trause.
Trause wrote that the department will eliminate about 390 full-time-equivalent positions. That doesn’t necessarily mean 390 jobs will be cut, and the specific number of positions to be cut won’t be known until October, he said.
“Nearly all of the reductions will occur in the first year of the biennium,” Trause wrote. “We expect to carry out two agency-wide layoffs – the first in mid-January 2012 and the second next summer.”
A spokeswoman for ESD could not be reached Friday.
The initial layoffs will begin with two rounds, beginning Oct. 21 and ending Jan. 16. The first round will involve positions to be eliminated, while the second round will involve employees who were bumped in the first round by those with more seniority.
“We have not yet established a timeline or identified all of the positions that will be eliminated in the summer 2012 layoff,” Trause said. “We will make those decisions next spring.”
Employment Security’s budget was turned inside out to determine which services to keep and which to reduce or eliminate, and that task was made more difficult by the lack of congressional agreement on a federal budget for the next federal fiscal year, he said. The agency also plans to reduce the budget for customer services by a smaller percentage than administrative services, and cut management by a larger percentage than other employees.
Here’s a breakdown of budget cuts by division:
• Budget, policy and research division: 20 percent, or $5.2 million.
• Commissioner’s office: 13 percent, or $901,000.
• Employment and career development division: 14 percent, or $15.8 million. Spread across different areas within this division, it represents a 20 percent cut to the central office, an 18 percent cut to WorkFirst and a 12 percent cut to field operations.
• HR division: 18 percent, or $1.6 million.
• IT division: 10 percent, or $6.2 million.
• Unemployment insurance division: 18 percent, or $19.9 million.
• WorkSource standards and integration division: 23 percent, or $1.7 million.
Hiring will be restricted in the coming months, although there will not be a hiring freeze, he said. Job vacancies will be preserved to serve as options for employees whose positions are being eliminated, and a few new positions will be created due to “strategic budget choices and consolidations.”
“Any hiring that occurs will be closely supervised by the Budget and Human Resources offices to preserve layoff rights,” Trause said.
Employment Security regional economist Jim Vleming, who has worked full time for the agency since 1983, said the email was tough news for his co-workers and him. At the same time, the agency was good about providing plenty of warning to employees about upcoming budget cuts and potential layoffs, he said.
“It is a sign of the times, really,” Vleming said. “Government can’t escape an economic downturn any more than another business might.”
Rolf Boone: 360-754-5403
rboone@theolympian.com
www.theolympian.com/bizblog
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