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$17.8 Million Grant Offers Hope of New Future for Alabama Workers Displaced by COVID-19

| October 27, 2020 @ 2:00 pm

Click HERE to see the full article on the Alabama NewsCenter website.

By Alabama NewsCenter Staff

The damage from the COVID-19 pandemic on Alabama’s economy has been staggering. Businesses across the state have closed for months at a time, sales have plummeted and, in the worst cases, companies have shuttered their doors permanently. Hundreds of thousands of employees have been sent home, forced to work reduced hours, or, too often, have lost their jobs.

Since March, almost 800,000 Alabamians have filed initial unemployment claims, according to the state Department of Labor figures. Alabama’s unemployment rate climbed from a record low of 2.7% in February to as high as 13.8% in April. While the economy has recovered somewhat, with unemployment dropping to 5.6% and more than 131,000 Alabamians in August (the most recent figure available), thousands more remain underemployed.

A $17.8 million federal grant through the Reimagine Workforce Preparation (RWP) program offers a hopeful future to displaced workers in the state’s hardest-hit industries. Alabama is one of eight states to win the grant through the U.S. Department of Education. The $17.8 million comes from the federal coronavirus relief bill and is in addition to the $1.9 billion Alabama received from the rescue package in March.

The rest of the article is located at AlabamaNewsCenter.com.

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Alabama News Center tels the stories of the people and businesses powering the states of Alabama, striving to make Alabama a wonderful place to live and work.

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