by Thomas E. Mitchell, Jr.
With twice as many jobs existing in the private sector than in the public sector, it's important that local businesses commit to hiring people from the central city, said Don Sykes, who is Mayor Tom Barrett's pick to be the first director of the city's new Office of Workforce Development.

Sykes, a national and regional leader in workforce and economic development, was the former executive director of the Social Development Commission (SDC). With the help of an advisory council of experts and stakeholders in Milwaukee workforce development, Sykes produced a report of recommendations and actions that the city could implement to increase the employment numbers.

As of July 1, Gov. Jim Doyle will designate Milwaukee and Mayor Barrett as the workforce investment board for Milwaukee and surrounding areas.
The governor has made the metropolitan Milwaukee area his prime focus for growing the state.
Milwaukee County and the Private Industry Council are the present designated entity in job training. PIC currently receives $14 million for workforce development. Of that, 70% is federal dollars.
Barrett reportedly asked to take over workforce development from the county and PIC, sighting the need for more leadership and collaboration in dealing with the city's unemployment problem.
The mayor's experience working in the leadership role of improving the regional economy has given him a keen perspective of city and regional employment.

In a Monday interview, Sykes expounded on his new position and the challenges before him in helping the mayor get a handle on the jobless situation in Milwaukee.

He praised Barrett for "stepping up to the plate" to take responsibility for job creation and retention.

"It's the first time a mayor has stood up and taken on this task with some authority behind him," Sykes said.

Sykes stressed how important it was to focus on creating jobs in both the public and private sectors. However, it is the private sector that can have the greatest impact, given the fact that two-thirds of the jobs are in that area.

"We need to push for higher paying jobs as much as possible, Sykes said, adding that for the first time in Milwaukee's history, the city recently provided Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) that includes money for workforce development.
Sykes said the public sector should provide the money necessary to prepare people for jobs.

He added that it is equally important that resources beyond those that already exist be found to provide pre-employment services that people need before they enter job training or a job.
Recently, the Helen Bader Foundation gave the city $500,000 to help jumpstart its workforce development effort. It was the single largest private gift to a city in Wisconsin for workforce development.

The Office of Workforce Development will also seek out the advice of Milwaukee businesses as to what they need (in an employee) to facilitate the best possible job training.
"Sometimes an employer is not satisfied with the type of training a person is getting. If that's the case, then we must sharpen the training people get," Sykes said.

Sykes said he will seek to integrate the current job training funding streams, as well as focus on ways to take existing training initiatives and integrate them into a seamless system, thus making it easier for persons to utilize services.

A recent UW-Milwaukee report revealed there is a "sharp regional/racial polarization of Milwaukee's male labor market" and that the rise in joblessness among Black males during the past 35 years has reached a peak of 51% in 2003.
Though he hasn't as yet read the UWM report and would not dispute his numbers, Sykes lamented that we still live in a racist society where employers have developed biases towards Black males, preferring to hire Hispanic or other ethnic groups.

But Sykes added it isn't always a "Black and White thing," noting that employers are going after immigrants and meeting minority requirements by hiring Black people from the Caribbean.

He also pointed to Republican/Conservative control of the federal courts where anti affirmative action and set-asides judges have made rulings that struck down and severely weakened those initiatives.