Indiana’s state budget, its college enrollment, and its labor force are facing a critical moment. College enrollment rates are dropping and the unemployment rate for America’s early-career workforce is turning into a crisis. Deeper investment in streamlined workforce services and encouraging public-private partnerships that can create new training pathways will be critical to meet the needs of the state’s changing economy, and to ensure Hoosiers now and in the future can find meaningful work that supports a solid quality of life.
Indiana is already a leader in providing alternative pathways into the workforce. The state supported over 22,000 apprentices in FY 2025, a 76% increase since 2016 and good for the fourth-highest number of apprenticeship programs per capita in the US. The Indiana State Board of Education also recently voted to allow high schools to count work-based learning—in the form of apprenticeships, internships, junior military service, industry credentials, or career and technical education—toward graduation requirements.
Large employers have noticed this commitment to workforce training. As part of its $725M expansion of their Lafayette facility, global construction giant Caterpillar committed $5M to training and upskilling programs in the state.
But several factors put this progress at risk. Indiana has successfully reduced its unemployment rate, which is good news, but this reduction has also meant a reduction in federal funding. Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) funding—the largest federal funding stream available to support workforce development—in Indiana fell by almost $20M between 2014 and 2023. Other federal cuts have stretched the state budget across the board.
This has come with real consequences: Indiana recently laid off 123 employees from the Department of Workforce Development. Jobs for America’s Graduates, a highly regarded program that allows high school students to enroll in career success classes taught by specialists, lost both state and federal funding in 2025, and will shrink from 250 programs to just 30.
But amidst funding cutbacks and federal policy turbulence, the efforts of other states can provide a road map for Indiana to draw from to ensure it remains a leader in alternative pathways into the workforce. Here are a few examples:
- Nevada: Integrated 17 partner programs into two “one-stop” locations in the north and south of the state. These locations are designed to help job seekers access all of the resources available to them from the state in one convenient place, reducing the friction often associated with seeking training and/or job support.
- Austin, Texas: Created the Austin Infrastructure Academy to train the 4,000 additional workers needed to support the city’s large-scale infrastructure expansion. Local leader Jameson Cardinas noted that the Infrastructure Academy has had a positive effect beyond training these workers, saying, “By pairing multi-year infrastructure funding with sustained workforce planning, Austin is able to forecast demand, align training pipelines, and reduce workforce shortages that can delay projects or drive up costs. That longer-term approach creates stability for employers, training providers, and workers alike—and ensures public investments deliver meaningful economic returns that benefit local people.”
- North Carolina: The Eastern North Carolina Workforce Development Board, which serves nine predominantly rural counties, is building out programs focused specifically on helping formerly incarcerated job-seekers reenter the workforce. This initiative brings together local community colleges, state-level agencies including the NC Department of Adult Correction and the Department of Commerce, local business, and non-profits and faith-based organizations to provide both supports like transportation and housing as well as job training and employment opportunities.
What’s important to note about these programs is that they coordinate and integrate services so that job seekers don’t have to navigate fragmented and siloed systems, without adding much cost. They take stock of local workforce needs and work with local organizations to provide resources so that job seekers are free to pursue employment opportunities without worrying about essentials like transportation and childcare. As Indiana maps its workforce development strategy for the coming years, a focus on private-public partnerships and interagency coordination is key to continuing our legacy of success.
