REDUCING UNEMPLOYMENT DISRUPTION & DRIVING ECONOMIC REGENERATION (RUDDER)
RUDDER is the DLIR’s economic regeneration initiative that provides State Employment & Training Funds that immediately infuses money into the economy and serve as the foundational strategy for aligning federal workforce programs, such as the Disaster Recovery grants, in a unified effort to efficiently train and transfer labor into Hawaiʻi’s businesses that can help reduce job losses and dampen the economic slide due to COVID-19.
The primary objective of RUDDER is to facilitate an efficient labor exchange between the sectors hardest hit by COVID-19 and employers hiring employees. For example, jobs involving cleaning, such as hotel housekeepers, could move into jobs in the healthcare with minimal training and the RUDDER program will facilitate that exchange.
The program provides up to $100,000 of relief to registered and compliant Hawai‘i businesses for new employees hired after March 1, 2020. The program provides an initial $500 payment for each new employee to offset training and associated costs upon notification to the department of the initial hiring of the employee. After six months of continuous employment and upon receipt of certification from the employer that they have retained the employee, the DLIR will issue a second payment of $500.
For more information, please email [email protected] or call (808) 586-8877.
