President Obama signing the Recovery Act.

Faced with a faltering economy and rising unemployment, on February 17, 2009 President Obama signed into law, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), the first major legislative initiative of his administration.

The Act provides $787 billion to create and save jobs, jumpstart our economy, and build the foundation for long-term economic growth. Most of these funds will be spent over the next two years.

The Recovery Act provides the U.S. Department of Labor and the nation’s public workforce investment system with $5.1 billion in funding for a number of employment and training programs. In March 2009, these funds were augmented with regular 2009 Department of Labor program year (PY) appropriations to many of the same programs totaling another $3.7 billion.

In short, the nation’s public workforce development system now has access to unprecedented levels of employment and training resources. And the case for directing these resources toward direct-care occupations has never been stronger: these jobs constitute an important source of employment that can help fuel our economic recovery, they are among the fastest growing occupations in the country, and they offer entry into the health care sector.