Calhoun County, AL – Alabama’s approach to workforce development is undergoing a significant transformation, bringing programs that once operated across multiple state agencies under a more centralized system designed to better connect workers, training opportunities and employers.
Alabama’s first Secretary of Workforce, Greg Reed, sat down with the Calhoun Journal for an in-depth interview to discuss that transition, the challenges facing Alabama’s workforce, opportunities for workers and students, and how state leaders plan to measure whether the new approach is working.
For Reed, who assumed the newly created role in February 2025, the transformation is about more than reorganizing state government. He said the larger goal is addressing what he considers one of Alabama’s most significant economic challenges: ensuring the state has enough trained workers to meet the demands of a growing economy.
The Alabama Workforce Transformation Act, signed into law in 2024, renamed the Alabama Department of Labor as the Alabama Department of Workforce and consolidated workforce-development responsibilities previously spread across state government.
“The simple theme there was if you can get everything that’s associated within state government in one place so that you’ve got economy of scale and synergy of everyone working together,” Reed said.
The restructuring brought together workforce functions that had previously been housed within several areas of state government, including programs associated with the former Department of Labor, the Department of Commerce and AIDT.
Rather than having programs operating through separate administrative structures — and, in some cases, pursuing similar resources — Reed said the objective was to bring them together with a common focus.
“Bring it all together, all moving in the same direction, all rowing in the same direction,” Reed said.
Before becoming secretary, Reed spent 14 years in the Alabama Senate, including service as majority leader and president pro tempore. That experience placed him on both sides of Alabama’s workforce transformation — first helping shape state policy as a legislator and later becoming responsible for implementing it.
Reed said those roles have proven substantially different.
As a legislator, he said the focus was largely on providing state agencies with resources, establishing policy and creating accountability. Running an agency requires examining individual programs, determining which approaches produce results and deciding where public resources can be used most effectively.
“It is a very different set of evaluations from being a legislator and saying, ‘Let us give you resources,’” Reed said, compared with serving as an agency secretary “where the rubber’s meeting the road.”
Looking Beyond Alabama’s Unemployment Rate
One of the challenges facing policymakers is that Alabama’s unemployment rate tells only part of the state’s workforce story.
While unemployment has remained relatively low, Alabama continues to face challenges with overall labor-force participation.
Reed said understanding those numbers requires looking deeper than the statewide participation rate because the federal statistic includes a broad range of working-age adults, including retirees who may have no intention of returning to employment.
Alabama has actively sought retirees, including military retirees, Reed noted, meaning some people counted within the population used to calculate participation are not necessarily potential workers.
That makes examining specific age groups increasingly important.
Reed pointed to Alabama’s prime-age workforce — generally workers ages 25 through 54 — as an area where the state performs considerably better than its overall participation rate might suggest.
The larger concern, he said, is younger Alabamians who are not working and are also not participating in college or workforce training.
“We’ve got large groups of younger people, maybe that have graduated from high school, but don’t have skills and don’t have participation in the workforce,” Reed said.
Those individuals may appear in state data because they have Social Security numbers, he said, but they are not enrolled in higher education or training, working or paying employment-related taxes.
Reaching that population has become a significant focus for the department.
More Than a Skills Gap
Reed said his perspective on why some Alabamians remain outside the workforce has changed since becoming secretary.
“There would have been a time — I’ve been in this job now about 19 months — that I might would have said the same thing I hear from many people: ‘You can’t get people to work. People don’t want to work,’” Reed said. “And in some instances, that’s true.”
But he said his experience leading the department has shown the issue is more complicated.
Many people are interested in working but may not know how to access available opportunities, he said.
“How do I access the scholarship opportunity? How do I access the training opportunity? How do I access the apprenticeship options?” Reed said.
Transportation and child care can create additional barriers.
Reed said he does not view Alabama’s challenge exclusively as a mismatch between available workers and the skills employers need. In many cases, the first challenge is getting someone connected to the workforce system.
Once a person decides they want to work, gain additional skills or pursue a career rather than simply a job, Reed said the state has resources that can help with subsequent steps.
The department is also using technology and workforce data to identify groups of potential workers and target outreach toward them.
The goal, Reed said, is to meet potential workers where they are and make them aware of employment, training, scholarship and apprenticeship opportunities available through the state.
East Alabama’s Workforce Efforts
During his conversation with the Calhoun Journal, Reed pointed repeatedly to East Alabama as an example of workforce development occurring through partnerships among government, educational institutions, economic-development organizations and employers.
He specifically discussed CREATE in Oxford and East AlabamaWorks, as well as partnerships involving local K-12 systems, Gadsden State Community College, Jacksonville State University and regional employers.
“There is a tremendous effort and focus on workforce growth,” Reed said.
Reed also discussed his relationships with members of the area’s legislative delegation and said local lawmakers have been supportive of workforce-development initiatives.
He cited the Anniston Army Depot as one of the region’s major employers and emphasized the importance of introducing students to career possibilities well before they reach the end of high school.
When asked where Alabama’s future workforce will come from, Reed identified two primary sources.
The first, he said, is currently sitting in middle-school classrooms.
“They’re all in about the sixth or seventh grade,” Reed said.
Programs such as CREATE can expose those students to the range of careers available to them and help them understand the education or training necessary to pursue those careers.
“That is where an entity like CREATE steps in and steps up to be able to help middle school kids in particular understand work is good, opportunities are plentiful, scholarship training is available, jobs are out there,” Reed said.
The objective, he said, is not to direct every student toward the same path but to ensure students understand their options — whether that ultimately means becoming a machinist, pursuing a four-year degree or even becoming an astronaut.
Earning While Learning
The second major source of Alabama’s future workforce, Reed said, will come through what he describes as “earning and learning.”
For adults who already have financial responsibilities, leaving a job to attend school or training full time may not be realistic.
Someone with a car payment, rent or a young child may want additional skills but still needs income while obtaining them.
Apprenticeships can provide one alternative.
“Second is earning and learning,” Reed said. “We need to give them chances. We need to collaborate on ways that allow there to be ways they can earn and learn at the same time.”
Reed said Alabama has more than 500 entities with apprenticeship programs housed through the state’s apprenticeship office and is approaching 5,000 Alabamians participating in apprenticeships on a typical day.
He said apprenticeship programs housed through the agency have increased approximately 14% year over year.
The model also has potential benefits for employers.
Reed said approximately 80% of workers completing apprenticeships remain with the organization where they apprenticed two years later.
Apprenticeships are not limited to traditional skilled trades.
Reed said 11 four-year institutions in Alabama have apprenticeship programs housed through the state, with opportunities connected to areas including education, early childhood services, social work and nursing.
Health Care Remains a Major Need
Health care is among the areas where Reed said Alabama continues to face significant worker demand.
He said workforce data for both Calhoun and Cleburne counties reflect the broader statewide need for health-care professionals.
That demand extends beyond nurses to respiratory therapists, EMTs, paramedics and other occupations supporting the state’s health-care system.
Reed said the state is working with the hospital association, two-year colleges and other partners on programs designed to expand the health-care workforce.
Additional apprenticeship opportunities are expected to be part of that effort.
The challenge illustrates one of the reasons Reed believes workforce development must involve educational institutions and employers simultaneously.
Training additional workers is only effective if the skills being taught correspond with positions employers actually need to fill.
How Will Alabama Know Whether the Transformation Works?
The long-term success of Alabama’s workforce restructuring will require measurements beyond the unemployment rate.
Reed identified several indicators he believes will provide a clearer picture over the next several years, including participation in career and technical education, apprenticeship growth, labor-force participation among younger and prime-age workers and the creation of higher-paying, higher-skilled jobs.
Career and technical education is particularly important, he said, because a four-year college degree will not be the path chosen by every Alabama high school graduate.
The question then becomes whether students who do not pursue a traditional four-year degree graduate with skills that allow them to enter the workforce and build careers.
Reed said increased investment in career-tech facilities, equipment and programs is intended to expand those opportunities.
Apprenticeship growth will provide another measurement.
If more workers enter apprenticeships, complete them and remain employed afterward, Reed said that would demonstrate that workers are successfully moving into sustainable careers.
The state is also increasingly using regional and industry-specific workforce data to anticipate future needs.
If economic-development officials know an industry will need hundreds of employees with particular skills several years from now, Reed said that information can be shared with career-tech programs, community colleges and universities.
Those institutions can then determine whether new programs or additional training capacity are necessary.
Instead of waiting for an employer to open its doors and discovering there are not enough trained workers, the objective is to begin building that workforce years in advance.
Reed pointed to major industrial investments elsewhere in Alabama as examples of that strategy, including the planned Eli Lilly manufacturing facility in the Huntsville area.
Workforce and education officials can begin examining the positions that will eventually be needed and developing educational pipelines while facilities are still being built.
“We’re kind of the keeper of the data,” Reed said of the Department of Workforce. “We’re following every specific. We’re looking at things regionally across seven different regions in the state. We’re looking at individual industries.”
New Opportunities in Skilled Trades
Reed also pointed to the continued growth of skilled trades as an area Alabama residents should watch.
A recently released national analysis placed Alabama among the states experiencing significant growth in skilled-trades employment.
Reed said those numbers matter not only for individual workers but also for economic recruitment.
A state with an expanding pool of trained workers can be more attractive to manufacturers and other employers evaluating locations for new facilities or expansions.
“That is a neon sign to businesses and industries and manufacturers to say, ‘Look at Alabama,’” Reed said.
He expects skilled trades, apprenticeships and career-tech education to remain major components of the state’s workforce strategy.
Reed also highlighted emerging opportunities connected to shipbuilding and submarine production for the U.S. military.
Training programs can allow people without previous industry-specific skills to enter intensive training, earn income during portions of that process and transition into jobs in the maritime and manufacturing sectors.
For Reed, programs structured around a direct path from training to employment illustrate what the state is trying to accomplish across industries: identify where workers are needed, provide accessible training and create a clear connection between completing that training and securing a job.
Creating a Path After Incarceration
Another developing initiative is designed to connect justice-involved Alabamians with high-demand careers.
Alabama recently received approximately $4 million in federal funding through the Reentry Employment in Skilled Trades, Advanced Manufacturing, Registered Apprenticeships and Training initiative, known as RESTART.
The program will involve workforce and education partners and provide training connected to skilled trades and advanced manufacturing.
Reed discussed opportunities in areas including welding, machining, heavy-equipment operation, industrial maintenance and advanced manufacturing.
The broader objective is to provide people transitioning from the criminal justice system with marketable skills that can lead to employment.
Reed said the initiative offers an opportunity for Alabamians who have made mistakes and completed their obligations to return to their communities better prepared to enter the workforce.
The program also represents another potential workforce pool at a time when employers across multiple industries are seeking trained workers.
What Comes Next
Reed said Alabamians should expect continued announcements involving apprenticeships, health care, skilled trades and workforce partnerships in the coming months.
The larger transformation, however, will take years to fully evaluate.
Alabama’s workforce challenges involve multiple populations and multiple barriers. A high school student deciding what to do after graduation faces a different set of circumstances than a 35-year-old worker seeking a higher-paying career, a parent struggling with child-care availability or someone preparing to reenter the workforce after incarceration.
The state’s restructuring is intended to place more of the programs serving those populations within a coordinated system while using workforce data to determine where resources and training are most needed.
For East Alabama, Reed said existing partnerships among schools, colleges, workforce organizations, elected officials and employers provide a foundation for that effort.
Ultimately, the measurements will be whether more Alabamians participate in the workforce, whether workers obtain skills employers need and whether those skills translate into sustainable careers.
Reed said accomplishing that will require continued cooperation among state government, educators, employers and local communities.
“It’s an all-hands-on-deck kind of a program,” Reed said.
