Putting Prince George’s to Work

By Walter L. Simmons, President & CEO

Employ Prince George’s celebrates its accomplishments during its first five years.

Employ Prince George’s celebrated its fifth-year anniversary in 2023 as the county achieved a milestone 1.9 percent unemployment rate, its lowest since the rate’s been tracked.

Walter Simmons

Five years ago, at the beginning of the Alsobrooks Administration and with the support of the Prince George’s County Council, Employ Prince George’s began our operations and launched our objective to become the county’s principal workforce development entity. Since then, Employ Prince George’s served more than 90,000 job seekers, 10,000 businesses,  documented job placements for more than 15,000 residents and provided Skills Upgrading Scholarships to 2,000-plus residents. We have achieved our goal to become one of the county’s major economic drivers.

 Working to meet the needs of Prince George’s County businesses and job seekers, we launched our Mobile American Job Center and opened our Building Trades Career Center –the first of its kind in the United States – in 2023.  We also launched two employer hiring incentives, the Apprenticeship Expansion Fund and Re-Entry Employment Incentive Program, with a goal to increase the existing $5.6M we have already granted to businesses. We also held our inaugural nonprofit capacity building cohort with a goal to build the scope of nonprofits in the county.

Last year brought us accolades. In 2023 Employ Prince George’s received awards from the National Association of Counties and the Maryland Association of Counties.

In addition to the organization’s awards, I, Employ Prince George’s President & CEO, was named the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals’ 2023 Professional of the Year and a Most Admired CEO by the Maryland Daily Record.

Employ Prince George’s plans to continue its growth and impact the County economy in 2024 and we look forward to our next five years.