They are not the highly paid people in the financial industry. They are not the bankers or the brokers.
These are people in support occupations, like secretaries, clerks, and computer technicians, who have lost their jobs because of the economic crisis that has hit Wall Street.
Today, Governor M. Jodi Rell, Senators Chris Dodd and Joe Lieberman, and the governors and U.S. Senators from New York and New Jersey said they're asking the U.S. Labor Department for a $48 million grant to help thousands of displaced workers. The money would be used to provide training, retraining, and other assistance to these workers.
In Connecticut, it's estimated the state will lose 11,000 financial sector jobs in Fairfield, New Haven, and Hartford counties. As the governor put it, we'll be losing, in effect, a big part of our paycheck.
Rell, Dodd, and Lieberman said they're confident the money will be forthcoming from the Labor department, but they're not sure when it will become available.
