The 4^th Annual National Offender Workforce Development Conference will take place on April 16-19, 2008 at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel in Los Angeles. Presentation proposals are now being accepted with early registration, beginning on November 1. A full listing of pre-conference workshops will be announced at a future date.

The ongoing crisis in mortgage and credit markets is being blamed for a loss of 4,000 jobs nationwide in August, the deepest employment cuts in four years. The statistics indicated that the Federal Reserve Board would most likely cut interest rates this fall.

Workforce development organizations within eight Arizona counties have spent the last three years participating in a peer professional development initiative. The Peer to Peer 2007: Structured Peer Sharing and Learning, written by Sheila E. Murphy and Margaret Trujillo, looks at Arizona’s Workforce Development Professionals grassroots efforts to expand the network of workforce development professionals at all levels of the one-stop career centers.

FEATURED RESOURCE: Public/Private Ventures has released Here to Stay: Tips and Tools to Hire, Retain and Advance Hourly-Wage Workers, a publication providing a series of cost-effective actions, including hiring the right people, welcoming them, retaining them and developing their talents for the company's benefit.

A Future of Good Jobs: America's Challenge in the Global Economy conference will present new ideas from leading policy thinkers on how to improve the performance of the US labor market for all workers.

FEATURED RESOURCE:  This Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) reports on the need to build evidence about what works to improve self-sufficiency within the housing-employment policy arena.

This 2007 Summit will take place on July 23-24 in Arlington, VA. Workshops will teach attendees how to design, manage and fund workforce development and job placement programs for the healthcare industry.

The US Department of Labor is phasing out America's Job Bank (AJB) on June 20.  JobCentral National Labor Exchange has been selected to take its place. JobCentral will allow job seekers to search, free of charge, more than five million jobs from corporate websites, newspapers, trade associations and other Internet sources. The service will be free to employers through participating state workforce agencies.

As an aging Baby Boomer generation requires more medical services, a shortage of nurses is projected to continue into the next decade. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics projected in 2005 more than 3.1 million registered nurse jobs would be available by 2014. That would add more than 700,000 new jobs for nurses.  Projections from the American Hospital Association suggest a national shortfall of 600,000 nurses by 2020.