Official Urges Safety Net for U.S. Workers : Jobs: Labor secretary pushes adoption of Re-Employment Act to revamp jobless insurance and training programs.

Declaring that job security is largely a thing of the past, U.S. Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich on Wednesday championed a Clinton Administration proposal to weave a new safety net for American workers dislocated by the increasingly unpredictable job market.

Reich, testifying at a congressional hearing held at East Los Angeles College, pushed for adoption of a bill, known as the Re-Employment Act, that would revamp the unemployment insurance system and consolidate major job-training programs.

The labor secretary said such a sweeping overhaul is needed because of the legions of people thrown out of work who, despite the nation’s current economic recovery, have little or no chance of ever finding jobs as good as the ones they had.

“It is time in this country to face the music. The old jobs aren’t coming back,” Reich said.

To help put dislocated workers to work faster, the Re-Employment Act would provide for an array of innovations. Among other things, it would permit states to pay unemployment insurance benefits to jobless workers launching new businesses.

It would also provide benefits to some job hunters who accept positions paying less than their previous positions and to others who take part-time jobs because they can’t find full-time work. To receive extended unemployment benefits, however, workers would have to be enrolled in long-term retraining programs.

Another aim of the proposal is to provide a more efficient way to find openings for job-seekers. To that end, the act would set up a computerized database of job listings. In addition, “one-stop” employment service centers would be set up so job hunters would not be bounced from one government agency to another.

Reich said support for the act is building, and he noted that this week it picked up its first Republican co-sponsor, U.S. Sen. Mark O. Hatfield of Oregon. Reich said he is upbeat about prospects for passage of the measure this year but conceded that changes would be likely.

However, the act has been criticized by everyone from business groups worried that the costs of the programs will escalate, to union leaders who fear the loss of existing worker assistance programs. It has also been faulted for neglecting the needs of the nation’s hard-core unemployed.

State and local agencies, meanwhile, have complained that the act would limit their flexibility. Virginia Hamilton, an official with the California Employment Development Department, testified at the hearing that state officials believe the act would impose too many mandates on the state. At the same time, she said, it would not go far enough in consolidating the federal government’s more than 150 job training programs.