Could San Antonio’s struggling Ready to Work program now act as a safety net for laid-off federal employees? City officials seem to think so.
During a press conference Monday, local officials said they expect ongoing rounds of federal layoffs to affect San Antonio residents, adding that local workforce development programs — including the city’s Ready to Work program — are gearing up to help affected employees find new jobs.
It’s unclear how many San Antonio residents will be affected by the cuts being made by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), but San Antonio’s status as both Military City, USA and Cyber City, USA could mean a larger local impact under President Donald Trump’s initiatives, Mayor Ron Nirenberg told reporters during the conference.
According to Workforce Solutions Alamo data, the total civilian labor force in the San Antonio-New Braunfels area is approximately 1.2 million, meaning federal non-military employees constitute roughly 2.9% of the total workforce.
As of December 2024, the San Antonio area’s unemployment rate is at 3.4% according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“The direct impacts to our region are not fully known yet,” Nirenberg said. “That’s why I’ve asked the leadership of the city’s Ready to Work program to begin establishing processes to help local workers impacted by federal action.”
Workforce Solutions Alamo has also reactivated a hotline that was utilized during the height of the coronavirus pandemic to help connect recently unemployed workers to resources. Residents laid off from federal jobs can call that hotline at 210-224-4357 to start getting connected to resources.
Council members Manny Pelaez (D8) and Adriana Rocha Garcia (D4) have also filed a Council Consideration Request on March 3 calling for a new program to fast-track the applications and onboarding of city employees that may lose their federally-grant funded positions. Nirenberg says he supports the creation of this new Re-employment Assistance for Federal Talent or “RAFT” program.
“There are close to 38,000 non-military federal employees in the San Antonio area,” Rocha Garcia said. “We don’t know how many of them will permanently lose their jobs, but what we do know is that in San Antonio, we’re here to support we’re here to help.”
Of its network of 550-plus local employers, companies have already started reaching out to Ready to Work asking if they can be connected to any high-skilled employees, said Mike Ramsey, executive director of the city’s Workforce Development Office, which oversees Ready to Work. That includes employers such as H-E-B, Credit Human, UTSA, Caterpillar, VIA and Baptist Health System, Ramsey said.
“We’ve already received several dozens of responses back with those employers wanting to do their part to absorb that talent,” Ramsey said.
The city’s program could also connect workers who lost their positions with job search, compensation claims, rental assistance, and stabilization services.
During the pandemic, the unemployment rate spiked to roughly 13% locally, up from about 3.5% in February 2020, said Adrian Lopez, CEO of Workforce Solutions Alamo. Lopez said while they’re not expecting quite that drastic of a jump this time, “there’s still likely to be an impact.”
“We just don’t know what that number is, and we just don’t know the impact at the moment,” he said.
This push by the city comes just months before Ready to Work stops collecting city funding. The program will stop receiving tax dollars on Dec. 31 of this year, however, it expects to spend that funding through 2029, Ramsey said, “so we’ve still got about four or five years to go before the Ready to Work resources are exhausted.”
The program has faced criticism over the past few years for not showing results faster. In 2020, local voters approved collecting a 1/8-cent of city sales tax from December 2021 to December 2025 to be put toward “authorized programs related to job training and the awarding of scholarships,” resulting in the creation of the program.
By the end of this year, the Ready to Work program is projected to have utilized nearly $240 million in public funds.
To date, Ready to Work has placed 1,928 participants in jobs and an additional 10,649 individuals are enrolled in various training programs, ranging from certificate courses to degree programs, according to the Ready to Work online dashboard.
However, the program’s progress has not fully met its initial goals, which were revised from a target of helping “up to 40,000 people” during the 2020 voter campaign, to “intake” up to 39,000 applicants, enroll 28,000 in training or degree programs, and place 15,600 in jobs by early 2022.
Asked if these federal layoffs could “boost” or change the outcomes for Ready to Work, Ramsey said the goal of the program has always been to help connect unemployed residents with resources.
“For some people who may feel like this is a different target group, Ready to Work was always meant to serve the unemployed, the underemployed in the underserved communities of San Antonio,” he said. “These individuals whose jobs have been impacted are now unemployed — which is Ready to Work’s target audience, so this will not take away anything. The resources that are available are plentiful.”
