Cumberland County promotes wage reimbursement program to help employers hire

Cumberland County is trying to lower the cost of hiring by reimbursing employers for half of a new worker’s wages, a push designed to turn open positions into paychecks faster for people who need steady work.

The program is the On-the-Job Training incentive promoted with the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Employers that bring on full-time workers at pay rates of at least $12 an hour in Cumberland County, or $13 an hour under the state standard, can receive a reimbursement equal to 50 percent of wages. The state says the subsidy can run up to $10,000 or 26 weeks per employee, which gives businesses a financial cushion while new hires get time to learn the job on the clock.

State labor officials describe On-the-Job Training as a subsidized option for eligible jobseekers that leads to employment, with workers hired by public or private employers and trained while doing productive work. If participants make satisfactory progress, they are retained as regular employees. That makes the program more than a short-term staffing tool: it is meant to help employers absorb training costs while building a stronger labor force for jobs that would otherwise stay empty.

The county’s workforce system is built around the same idea. Cumberland County says its One-Stop services include free job development, resume writing workshops, interviewing workshops, career counseling, educational and career-interest assessments, in-house training in Microsoft Office and QuickBooks, occupational skills training and on-the-job training. Youth who come into the Center for Workforce & Economic Development meet with a Youth Employment Counselor who can help review job listings, training options and basic skills help.

Those services are anchored at the RCSJ Cumberland campus in Vineland, where the county’s workforce office sits at 3322 College Drive. The Cumberland-Salem-Cape May Workforce Development Board, a 28-member body representing business, industry, local government and service organizations, says its business-development work is meant to help employers build, grow and expand through local, state and federal grant incentive programs, including On-the-Job Training, Incumbent Worker Training and tax-credit incentives.

The broader policy picture shows how the county is trying to move people into work and keep them there. New Jersey’s Return and Earn program uses the same On-the-Job Training infrastructure, offering a wage subsidy for six months and a $500 incentive to eligible workers. The state says it began in September 2021 and was expanded in March 2023 to businesses with 500 or fewer employees. NJDOL also says its UPSKILL: NJ incumbent-worker program delivered more than $26.4 million over three years to 264 employers and organizations, training 40,789 employees.