Monmouth County has hired a total of 123 people through the NEG to assist in residual Sandy cleanup efforts, including brush removal and public property cleanup. Nine people hired under the grant have been working in Long Branch, which was the first stop for Commissioner Wirths, Tom Dalton of the USDOL, Eileen Higgins of the Monmouth County Workforce Investment Board and several other officials.

“The damage and debris left behind by Sandy is still being cleaned up, and the National Emergency Grant has gone a long way to help communities such as this one get some added workers while also giving unemployed people an opportunity for a temporary job. We’ve been able to put several hundred people to work in 16 counties, and we continue to enlist more,” Commissioner Wirths said.

People being hired for the work are those who were displaced from their jobs by Sandy or people who have been unemployed for more than 26 weeks. The state labor department secured the $15.6 million NEG just days after Sandy hit the state.

The Christie Administration is also in the process of issuing employment and training grants under a $26 million recovery package launched through the state labor department to help in the recovery of Sandy-impacted businesses and workers, as well as to invest in the state’s future economic growth.

For more details on the National Emergency Grant, go to:

http://lwd.dol.state.nj.us/labor/lwdhome/press/2012/20121102_NEG.html

Labor Commissioner Harold J. Wirths talks with a team of workers in Long Branch that were hired through a National Emergency Grant to assist with Sandy recovery work. Commissioner Wirths toured the Long Branch and Union Beach areas today with officials from Monmouth County and the U.S. Department of Labor.