New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has consolidated worker programs into the Department of Business Services, in order to give people a chance to be trained to fit the need of businesses looking to hire workers. The federal money is available through the Workforce Investment Act, the goal of which was to create one-stop career centers where people could get unemployment benefits, look for jobs, and receive training. New York City has been slow to adopt this program, and as a result they lost some federal funding which will make it difficult to cover job-training expenses.
See "City Ties Unemployment Services to Needs of Businesses", Jennifer Steinhauer, The New York Times, July 17, 2003