Press Release
The Maryland Workforce Corporation (MWC) is delighted to celebrate its first anniversary. “Public-private partnerships are a new way of doing business that will help Maryland strengthen our workforce and compete and win in the new economy,” said Governor O’Malley. “I am pleased to celebrate the first successful year of the Maryland Workforce Corporation, which has allowed for the acquisition of over $4 million in federal grants that keep our economy strong and growing.”

“We’ve had an amazing start, from MWC’s creation as an act of Maryland legislature in 2009 to July 1st last year when I arrived at our headquarters with a box and chair,” explained Andy Moser, MWC’s president/CEO. “In addition to administering more than $4 million in federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants, we’ve also served as the administrative entity for $2.9 million in state and private grants through our relationships with a variety of partners, including the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, the Maryland Higher Education Commission, the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Tri-County Council of Southern Maryland, and Abt and Associates, among others.”

According to George Maloney, chair of MWC’s Board of Directors, “The Maryland Workforce Corporation also recently concluded its first successful independent audit with no findings, a point of pride for all of us on the Board. Our goal for MWC is to create a competitive workforce that best serves Maryland’s dynamic business community, and on behalf of our Board, we’ll work to make that goal a reality.”

Press Release
Portal is the First Multi-State Labor Exchange with Geographic Interface in US History

The Mid-Atlantic Regional Collaborative’s (MARC) Green Consortium is pleased to announce that its groundbreaking Green Data for a Growing Green Economy research reports and state-of-the-art green jobs portal are now available at www.marcgreenworks.com. The MARC Green Works Jobs portal provides free, real-time job search and recruitment tools for DC, Maryland and Virginia jobseekers and employers while the Green Data for a Growing Green Economy reports give individuals from the government, education and business communities an unprecedented look at the state of the region’s green workforce. The project was funded through a $4 million competitive grant from the US Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Ten top findings of the Green Data for a Growing Green Economy include:
1.  The green economy represents an estimated $34.8 billion in terms of DC, Maryland, and Virginia’s gross regional product or GRP;
2.  8-9% of region’s employers with more than one employee have green jobs;
3.  235,600 green jobs exist in the region and that number is expected to grow by 12% in the next two years;
4.  50% of green jobs were concentrated in the construction, technical services, and education/policy sectors although green jobs were found in 300+ industries; 
5.  The greatest number of green jobs are in energy efficiency and energy conservation; 
6.  Green growth is projected in construction, professional, scientific, technical services and support, and waste management services;
7.  75% of the region’s green employers offered on-the-job training (OJT) for workers;
8.  6,500 green jobs were available at the time of the mid-2010 survey and most openings did not require a degree;
9.  Jobs requiring a BA degree or above accounted for 69% of green employment in DC, 23% in Maryland,
and 26% in Virginia; and
10. In DC, the largest gaps (shortages of trained applicants for green jobs) are in the life, physical and social science, architecture and engineering, and business and financial operations occupations while in Maryland and Virginia, the business and financial operations andcomputer and mathematical occupations are more heavily impacted. 

The MARC Green Works Jobs portal, the MARC Green Consortium project’s web component, is available at www.marcgreenworks.com. Unlike conventional job boards, the portal provides updated green and other job postings every 24 hours to ensure the quality of postings provided. Through the use of “web spidering” for jobs based on keywords, the portal delivers postings from DC, Maryland, and Virginia’s online labor exchanges as well as public and private job boards and company websites. Job seeker services include job postings, job market trends, career information, and job market exploration tools, while employer services include resume search tools. In addition, the portal provides real-time labor market data (area profile, occupation profile, industry profile, and labor market facts) to help jobseekers and employers make real-life decisions.