Labor Department Losing Ground on Key Trump Jobs Initiative

The Department of Labor is falling short of its goal to expand apprenticeships this year, even as top officials present the program as a crucial plug for workforce gaps across an increasing number of industries.

The number of registered apprenticeships in the program fell after Congress didn’t increase its funding. Former officials and industry stakeholders have also cast doubts about the initiative’s effectiveness to create more jobs in sectors like information technology, construction, and health.

“If we want the apprenticeship model to be adopted to its fullest, we need to be honest about what it is and what it is not. It’s not a quick fix to a labor shortage, any labor displacements, anything,” said John Pallasch, who ran the DOL’s Employment and Training Administration during the first Trump administration.

Registered apprenticeships are central to the Trump administration’s labor agenda, and officials are attempting to sell it as an answer for the nation’s workforce woes. The US will lose 18.4 million workers in the next decade, outstripping the 13.8 million workers set to enter, according to Georgetown University.

Apprenticeship programs are varied and aim to train workers outside of higher education routes. They pair workers directly with supervisors and combine on the job training with more structured education.

President Donald Trump asked Congress for $3 billion to consolidate workforce development programs into the Make America Skilled Again grant scheme, with 10% allocated for apprenticeships. Lawmakers rejected the framework and instead approved $285 million for apprenticeships, same as in fiscal 2025.

Trump called for the DOL to add 1 million new registered apprentices during his administration, but department messaging around the goal has shifted within the past year, with leaders now identifying success as reaching 1 million active apprentices—a goal that may prove more elusive as workers cycle out.

And last week, the president encouraged Congress to expand workforce initiatives to allow workers to participate in an “AI-powered economy.”

According to the DOL’s website, the nation currently has around 700,388 active apprentices compared to last fiscal year’s 702,191. It’s the first time the number of active RAs has decreased in the last 10 years.

DOL Spokesperson Courtney Parella said in a statement the department has registered 345,000 new apprentices so far, a 20% increase from the annual average under the Biden administration, and will “build on that momentum” to meet Trump’s goal. She noted there’s typically a drop in active apprentices at the start of the fiscal year.

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer told the Western Governors’ Association in a keynote address last year the president’s goal was within reach, saying she hoped to reach as many as 1.2 million apprentices by 2029.

Red Tape

Despite bipartisan support and regular promotion by Chavez-DeRemer and Deputy Secretary Keith Sonderling as a way to put American workers into good paying jobs, employer-side groups are unconvinced the program can deliver on their promises .

John Mielke, director of apprenticeships at Associated Builders and Contractors, said registered apprenticeships are a “time-honored, gold standard” form of education in the construction industry.

“But the reality is that it doesn’t produce enough graduates to meet the skilled worker demand,” he said.

Current regulations make it hard to produce new workers—companies that participate must have enough skilled employees to act as teachers for these apprentices, comply with federal discrimination laws, and go through compliance checks.

“Apprenticeships are bureaucratic and we have to kind of own that,” said John Colborn, executive director of advocacy organization Apprenticeships For America. “There’s a perception that it’s not as efficient as it could be so we have some work to do there.”

Updated guidance released by the DOL recently said companies no longer need to provide 2,000 hours of on-the-job training. It’s meant to help get apprentices to work faster, but SMART General President Michael Coleman warned prioritizing speed over skills undermines the quality of the programs.

The change could also hamper the administration’s goal by pushing people out of the program earlier, said Nicholas Beadle, a former DOL official who spent more than a decade at the agency in various roles.

“People are pretty resigned that we’re not going to get to 1 million,” Beadle said.

Cooperative Agreements

The most novel changes so far has been a restructuring of federal workforce grants.

The DOL announced $145 million in February for five organizations to launch apprenticeship programs in industries like defense, artificial intelligence, and health care. These funds, issued as cooperative agreements under the DOL’s new “Pay-for-Performance Incentive Payments Program,” give the federal government more oversight and authority than a traditional grant which is how they were typically awarded.

Arkansas received $35.8 million to run a center aimed at the manufacturing industry, offering employers $3,500 per new apprentice signed.

If the five other grant programs retain the $3,500 per apprentice figure, the program could yield about 51,000 new trainees.

Michael Altman, senior manager of federal regulatory affairs with ABC, called that number “a drop in the bucket.”

Political Messaging

Chavez-DeRemer has described the program as a solution for labor shortages. Sonderling also publicly discussed his vision for the program as helping build the nation’s AI infrastructure.

But department officials shifted the goal to focus around the number of active apprentices, instead of total produced.

“It’s been a very messy goal, but ultimately I think Trump two landed on the goal that’s hardest to meet and its policies could make it even harder for it to meet,” said Beadle.

Colborn said all of the attention and advertising of the program could help boost it, even if they fall short.

“If we can sell this to employers, that they’re not going to get somebody who’s trained by a third party who has nothing to do with the industry, but this worker is trained on their culture and systems, companies are going to start seeing a lot of value in that,” he said.