Pasadena : Local Hiring Emphasized

The city and the Chamber of Commerce have joined in a new program aimed at encouraging employers to increase their hiring of Pasadena residents. Under the voluntary program, called Joint Occupational Business Services, private employers will use local job training programs to fill entry-level positions and increase their use of women and minority subcontractors on major construction projects.

Pasadena hopes the program will help alleviate the underemployment of local residents, who hold only 15% of the jobs in downtown office buildings, according to City Director Rick Cole.

The program was adopted in place of two proposed ordinances that would have required contractors to make their “best effort” to hire women and minorities on construction projects and would have imposed a fee on construction projects to finance a local job center. Both proposals had been criticized by the Chamber of Commerce.