Today’s LIMBA program featured a New York State Labor Dept initiative created in January. It is called "NY Youth Works." Mark Grossman is the regional representative for the NY State Labor department and he was here giving the presentation.

Long Island suffered a job loss demonstrated by a graph that looks very much like the national job loss. And like the national picture jobs are recovering, but many young people are still unemployed. This program is directed at the younger workers ages 16-24 and that number can be stretched.

There are $25 million dollars in tax credits going toward the effort and another $8 million in job-readiness funds. There is a certification period for job applicants and prospective employer, but the window is short June 1, 2012. Once certified you have one year to complete a program

The actual allotment is $4,000 per employee @ $500 per month. At that point the employee will be deemed employable and be retained or let go. It’s a great opportunity for employing a new hire while minimizing the financial risk of doing so. For the employee it is an opportunity to prove himself.

The program has targeted areas where unemployment is more severe. That target area pertains to the job seeker, the employer can be out of the target area as long as the travel distance is one hour or less.

We had Eastern Suffolk BOCES representative, Dean Lucera in the room. BOCES does an excellent job of training young people and there seems to be a natural symbiosis with this program, and the business community.

A question came up about helping non-profits and municipal entities, and of course they cannot benefit from tax benefits, but they can have the training portion of the program. Mr Grossman indicated that some additional thought is presently going into doing even more for those entities.

A question came up about using this state program in tandem with any available. It was not entirely clear, but Mark got back to me later in an email and the answer is yes. Here is that communication. Please note there is a link that can get you to the program for more information

Dear Ernie,

Thank you once again for allowing me the opportunity to present NY Youth Works to LIMBA this morning.  The feedback from those who attended was very positive. 

To answer the question that was raised about stackable tax credits, I have good news.  The answer is "yes," a certified employer can receive both NY Youth Works tax credits and additional tax credits such as Work Opportunity Tax Credits (WOTC) and Workers with Disabilities Tax Credits (WETC) if a worker also meets the eligibility requirements for one of those programs.  Information about WOTC and WETC can be found at http://www.labor.ny.gov/businessservices/PDFs/p438.pdf.

The reason is that NY Youth Works in state-funded and WOTC/WETC is federally-funded.

This morning’s meeting was been sponsored by LIFT. The Long Island Forum for Technology has been promoting technology and helping technology companies for as long as LIMBA has been around.

Through the years they have developed many programs that help fledgling companies take root.

LIFT Executive Director, Bill Wahlig was on hand with us this morning to give a little more depth on the organization.

We thank LIFT for their support.