Marroquin plans to complete his basic trade training in an engineering specialty next week. After that, he had hoped to pursue an advanced training program through Job Corps, which provides housing and access to college-level courses in specific fields, including in his engineering field at its New Hampshire site in Manchester.
Now, he’s worried he might not even have a place to stay come June.
“It’s really unfortunate how I can’t even do my education correctly. I can’t even work [up] the career ladder,” Marroquin said. “I can’t even focus on my future because I’m worried about if I’m not going to have a place to even live or to eat.”
San José’s Job Corps personnel were not available for comment in time for this story’s publication.
The Job Corps operated with a $140 million deficit in 2024, and that shortfall is expected to balloon to $213 million in 2025, according to the department. It is the most expensive of the Department of Labor’s programs, costing about $1.7 billion in 2024.
A 2008 study from Mathematica showed that the program had beneficial impacts on disadvantaged youth and reduced their involvement in criminal activity or need for public assistance programs. But it also showed a lack of long-term earnings impacts for participants.
Recent data from the DOL found that participants earn $16,695 per year on average when they leave Job Corps programs.
It also shows that in 2023, serious incident reports were written for more than 1,700 acts of violence, about 2,700 instances of drug use and more than 1,160 breaches of security across Job Corps’ roughly 100 sites.
“The department’s decision aligns with President [Trump]’s FY 2026 budget proposal and reflects the Administration’s commitment to ensure federal workforce investments deliver meaningful results for both students and taxpayers,” the DOL statement said.
Despite apparent issues, Marroquin said his experience over the past 10 months has been positive — barring some issues with declining services, staff and resources since the Trump administration took office in January, during which he enacted a temporary funding freeze and offered a voluntary buy-out to federal employees.
