Future of CT Job Corps centers uncertain amid ‘phased pause.’ Here’s what to know

Connecticut is home to two Job Corps centers, a federally funded residential program that trains 16- to 24-year-olds for jobs in health care, carpentry, plumbing, manufacturing, technology and other vocations. Participants receive housing, meals and health care, and the program serves many disadvantaged and disconnected young people.

But in late May, officials at the U.S. Department of Labor announced a “phased pause” in operations at the roughly 100 Job Corps centers around the country, including the two Connecticut sites in Hartford and New Haven. In the statement, the department cited “financial challenges” and a projected deficit of $213 million in the current year. It also noted there had been thousands of incidents of violence, drug use and security breaches within the programs.

“The program is no longer achieving the intended outcomes that students deserve,” Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer said in a statement. The program, which has been around since 1964, would be placed on an operational pause by June 30, the department said.

Days later, the National Job Corps Association — a trade group representing the contractors that operate the centers — filed a lawsuit in federal court in New York City, seeking to stop the Trump administration from suspending their operations. A handful of program contractors also joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs.

A federal judge — citing the likely illegality of the Labor Department’s actions — issued a temporary restraining order the following day and later extended that injunction, which has allowed the centers to remain open while litigation proceeds.

Still, for Connecticut’s two Job Corps centers, the future is uncertain.

Earlier this year, the New Haven center was near capacity with 146 participants and a waiting list. But when the Labor Department announcement went out in late May, dozens of students who were enrolled in the program left the dorms.

While most have since returned, leaders at the New Haven program say they’re having a difficult time enrolling new students after the Labor Department unexpectedly halted background checks for new applicants earlier this year. In New Haven, that means 71 applicants’ enrollment is stalled; across the country, that number is in the thousands.

Emails to the U.S. Labor Department’s contractor for background check technology, Jazz Solutions Inc., were not returned.

Representatives for the department also did not respond to requests for comment.

“It not only affects the young folks, it affects us adults as well,” said Robert Velez Jr. counselor supervisor for the New Haven Job Corps Center. “There’s reason why Job Corps has been around for a long time, because of the success rates, the stories, the inspiration behind young folks who have made it.”

‘Make America Skilled Again’

The uncertainty for Job Corps comes after President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order in April asking the Labor, Education and Commerce Departments for a plan to support over 1 million apprenticeships in skilled trades.

The executive order also called for an overhaul of current programs, to “consolidate and streamline fragmented Federal workforce development programs that are too disconnected from propelling workers into secure, well-paying, and high-need American jobs.”

Within days, the Labor Department published its “Transparency Report,” which analyzed how Job Corps programs were performing.

The report found the program spent an average of $80,285 per student per year, but that if the cost were calculated based only on students who ultimately graduate from the program — a smaller number — the per-pupil cost was more than twice as high. It also found that students who participated in Job Corps earned an average of about $17,000 a year.

“This report underscores the department’s commitment to program transparency and accountability — both of which are essential for effective oversight, informed policymaking, and maintaining public trust,” the department’s acting assistant secretary for employment and training, Lori Frazier Bearden, said in a press release.

The National Job Corps Association took issue with some findings in the report, arguing in a statement that enrollment dropped significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, which skewed cost-per-pupil figures. The current delays with background checks could skew those numbers again, since new students can’t enroll, Job Corps staff said.

The association also said participants’ earnings calculations included many former students who had enrolled in college or enlisted in the military, whose incomes were listed as $0 in the Labor Department’s calculations.

The Labor Department cited its transparency report in late May, when it called for Job Corps center operations to be put on pause.

In its lawsuit opposing the pause, the NJCA called any intention to eliminate the program “illegal.”

U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter Jr. acknowledged, in his June 25 order granting the preliminary injunction, the Labor Department’s argument that the centers aren’t technically closed — operations are merely on pause. Full closure would require certain protocols mandated by Congress.

“But the way that the DOL is shuttering operations and the context in which the shuttering is taking place make it clear that the DOL is actually attempting to close the centers,” the order stated.

In the DOL’s requested budget for fiscal year 2026, $176 million was requested for “closeout costs” to shut down Job Corps. Technically, federal funding for Job Corps should extend through June 30 of next year, according to NJCA and legislators.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong filed an amicus brief in the case last month, joining 20 other state attorneys general in opposing the Trump administration’s shuttering of Job Corps.

“The Trump Administration blatantly ignored federal law and Congressional authority in arbitrarily terminating this program—callously seeking to kick at-risk youth to the curb,” said AG Tong in a statement at the time. “Connecticut joins with states across the nation to protect Job Corps and the vital education, support and training it provides.”

The NJCA’s case is pending, but a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a separate case against the Trump administration could potentially reinstate the Trump administration’s operational pause for many Job Corps Centers. In Trump v. CASA Inc., the court found universal injunctions exceed the authority of district judges.

Labor Department lawyers argued in a briefing in the NJCA case that the judge’s injunction should only apply to Job Corps centers operated by the plaintiffs, who only represent a subset, 36, of roughly 100 total centers around the country. A court date is set for further oral argument on the scope of the injunction for Monday, July 21, and a final ruling has yet to be made.

U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, who represents New Haven, pointed out what she saw as a contradiction in the federal government’s workforce development plans. “Just a few weeks ago President Trump said he wanted to ‘Make America Skilled Again’,” DeLauro said in a statement last month. “Now, he is pulling the plug on a program that does just that.”

‘The embodiment’ of MASA

While Connecticut’s Job Corps centers await the lawsuit’s conclusion, leaders at the New Haven and Hartford operations are trying to remain hopeful. In recent weeks, they’ve hosted members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation at both locations to rally support.

“I feel optimistic about the mission to provide a quality service and make a positive impact in a person’s life,” Juvenel Levros, director of the New Haven center, said as he introduced program participants during a press conference at the New Haven Job Corps Center in June.

Troy Sanders, 22, said the program was uplifting not only for him but for his friends and family. He studied as a plumbing apprentice and said it has led to job opportunities.

“Job Corps is just helping me out a lot, to get a good trade,” Sanders said. “And I know a lot of people that need Job Corps in general. A lot of people, they don’t have a lot.”

Nahjayiah Muñoz, at 20, is a foreman in the center’s carpentry program. She said that now that the program is open again the participants are that much more focused on earning degrees.

“Without Job Corps, I wouldn’t have gotten a career,” Muñoz said. “[Or] had the opportunity to finally stabilize my life as well as the people around me. I finally get to grow and that’s thanks to this program right here.”

As foreman of carpentry, Muñoz said she oversees pre-apprentices’ safety and lays out blueprints. “Here, we learned everything we need to do safety-wise, because on the job site, there’s not a guarantee that you’re safe— so they make sure that we will be safe” she said.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal called the program “hugely successful” and said, “Ending the Job Corps would be cruel and stupid.”

Speaking at the event, Blumenthal said the Labor Department “cannot take the law into its own hands.” He also said he hopes the judge will order labor officials to restart background checks so new students can enroll.

It is unclear whether the Labor Department would restart background checks if NJCA won its case.

Meanwhile, Blumenthal said he’ll be urging Sec. Chavez-DeRemer and fellow members of Congress to support the future of the Job Corps program. “We’re going to be cajoling, buttonholing and persuading colleagues in the Senate that this program has to be retained in red states as well as blue states, because those jobs exist all over the country,” he said. “And let me just be absolutely clear, this fight is far from over.”

Levros said Job Corps was key for students like Sanders, Campbell and Muñoz, ensuring that they were able to secure employment and grow professionally.

“They are the embodiment of making America skilled again,” he said.

Janhavi Munde is a reporter for the Connecticut Mirror. Copyright 2025 @ CT Mirror (ctmirror.org).