Title 15 › CHAPTER 58 — FULL EMPLOYMENT AND BALANCED GROWTH › SUBCHAPTER I — STRUCTURAL ECONOMIC POLICIES AND PROGRAMS INCLUDING TREATMENT OF RESOURCE RESTRAINTS › § 3116
The President, through the Secretary of Labor, must make policies, plans, and suggested programs to help people age 16 and up who want work but cannot find jobs despite trying. Using powers in title I of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and other laws, the Secretary must make sure people can get counseling, training, and other help. The Secretary must also refer job seekers to openings in public and private work through public placement centers and the U.S. Employment Service, including jobs created under sections 3112, 3114, and 3115, and promote flexible or part‑time work for people who cannot work a full standard week. If private jobs and existing programs cannot meet the Employment Act of 1946 goals, the President may set up reservoirs of public and nonprofit jobs, approved by the Secretary, by expanding current programs or creating new ones. Any new programs authorized after October 27, 1978 must not start earlier than two years after that date and need a presidential finding sent to Congress that other methods are not producing enough jobs. New programs must not pull workers out of private jobs, must be useful work, focus mostly on lower skill and pay levels, try to create as many reservoir jobs as funding allows, target high‑unemployment areas and people who are structurally unemployed, and be phased in with the Employment Act goals. The Secretary must write rules to assess a job seeker’s ability for certain kinds and lengths of work, enforce nondiscrimination, set eligibility and priority rules (including household income, unemployment of not less than five weeks, and number of dependents), bar people who refuse jobs without good cause, and provide an appeal process for these decisions.
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Commerce and Trade, Source: USLM XML via OLRC
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Citation
15 U.S.C. § 3116
Title 15, Commerce and Trade
Last Updated
Sep 22, 2026
Release point: 119-110