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JobCentral - National Labor Exchange implementation efforts continue throughout the states that have signed their participation agreements. FTP testing is ongoing in all participating states along with process improvement consultations. DirectEmployer Association staff continues work with state consortia and vendors that provide states' self-service job-bank services including: AOSOS, Geographic Solutions, AJLA, and Cyber. JobCentral is near completion with testing the military occupation crosswalk search, and the O*NET code testing for the job search function. Twenty-two states have signed the agreement, while many more are nearing the signature of their agreements. Participating states are also receiving briefings on VetCentral, a JobCentral feature which will allow states to help federal contractors meet their compliance requirements and ensures veterans' priority is met.

According to the "Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRA) of 1974," and its accompanying regulations, 41 CFR 60-250.5(a), federal contactors receiving over $25,000 in contracts from the federal government must take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment qualified special disabled veterans, veterans of the Vietnam era and any other veterans who served on active duty during a war or in a campaign. To meet such compliance requirements, VEVRA and its regulations allow federal contractors to list their positions with the appropriate local employment service office or with the U.S. Department of Labor's America's Job Bank (AJB). While the "Jobs for Veterans Act (JVA)" which was signed into law in 2002, amended these provisions of VEVRA, no regulations have been promulgated thus far, allowing VEVRA and its regulations to remain in effect.

This means should no regulations be issued by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) -- a part of the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment Standards Administration - before the closure of AJB, on June 30, 2007, federal contractors will have to meet compliance through listing with the "appropriate local employment service office." No certain information is available as to what JVA regulations might require or when such regulations will be issued, although proposed regulations published in the Federal Register on January 20, 2006, shed some light into the potential final regulations.

In response to these circumstances, DEA has created "VetCentral," a job distribution program for veterans, to help federal contractors meet their statutory job posting responsibilities after AJB's closure. Federal contractor jobs will be forwarded electronically to the appropriate employment service office or integrated One-Stop centers (wherever Wagner Peyser resides). To allow for ease of use, the same job orders will appear in VetCentral, allowing staff and customers to search such job orders with ease. VetCentral (and the ability to serve employers by helping them meet compliance) is offered for free to participating JobCentral states, although this is not an exlusive option. It is worth noting that DEA employer-members have agreed that all employers -- regardless of DEA membership -- can also use this feature for free by uploading jobs one-at-a-time. For additonal information, you may be interested in viewing DEA's white paper, titled "Meeting Federal Conractor Job Posting Requirements."