MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The newly established Alabama Workforce Board said Tuesday it will not make major funding requests in the upcoming legislative session and will instead focus on branding efforts for the Alabama Department of Workforce, currently known as the Alabama Department of Labor.
The new board was established earlier this year after the passage of the Alabama Workforce Transformation Act, which, in addition to changing the name of the agency, tasked the new board and its executive committee with making annual budget recommendations as it relates to workforce development.
Gov. Kay Ivey’s office is currently developing budget drafts for fiscal year 2026. Those drafts will be shared with state lawmakers by the second legislative day of the 2025 session in early February.
Brooks McClendon, a member of the board and deputy chief of staff for Ivey’s office, recommended that the board not make any major budget requests during its first budget cycle.
“This is obviously something the executive committee can discuss, (but) our recommendation would be that it wouldn’t be advisable to make major budget and funding changes during this upcoming legislative session,” McClendon said.
In fiscal year 2024, the Department of Labor received a total of nearly $37.5 million in state money, including a General Fund allocation. It received $195.2 million in federal and local funds.
“… There may be a little fat trimming along the way, but that will give you, as the executive committee, what we think and hope will be a very good starting point,” McClendon said.
The Alabama Department of Workforce was established as part of a larger effort to improve the state’s labor participation rate, which as of November was 57.6%, among the lowest such rates in the nation.
The Alabama Workforce Transformation Act, one of several bills passed this year aimed at improving workforce participation, also renamed the Department of Labor as the Department of Workforce, with one of the Alabama Workforce Board’s responsibilities being rebranding efforts. Marty Redden, the state’s new secretary of workforce, said during the meeting that work is well underway.
“We’ve already started sketching out a framework for a (request for proposal), and of course, with (all of your) help finalizing it to where we have a branding of both internal and external,” Redden said. “(The rebranding effort will be) focusing on the experience of the job seeker, ease of navigation, and increasing the traffic flow, the approach is going to be both web-based and with the pathway centers.”
Jeff Peoples, CEO of Alabama Power Company and chair of the board, reiterated to board members what the body’s focus should be in the immediate future, starting with rebranding efforts.
“Branding, workforce consolidation, budgeting, and the (strategic workforce) plan; that’s the four things we’re focused on, each one of them are in different phases,” Peoples said, attending the meeting virtually. “Some of them will come to fruition early next year, some of them will go into a bigger plan.”
Developing a broad strategic workforce plan is another one of the board’s duties as outlined in the Alabama Workforce Transformation Act, a plan that will help guide state lawmakers and agency heads toward improving workforce participation.
The board’s inaugural meeting in October saw Peoples champion public-private partnerships as being essential to improve workforce participation.