Old Dominion Job Corps to lay off 130 in Amherst

Amherst County-based Old Dominion Job Corps Center will lay off 130 workers by June 30, due to President Donald Trump‘s administration ordering the closures of contractor-run Job Corps centers across the nation.

Old Dominion, in compliance with the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, notified the state Tuesday of plans to lay off the employees due to the closure of the Job Corps site.

The U.S. Department of Labor announced on May 29 it would begin a phased pause in operations at contractor-operated Job Corps centers nationwide, with all operations closed by June 30. The Job Corps program provides students ages 16-24 with education, vocational training and job placement assistance. Blue Ridge Job Corps Center in Smyth County is also slated for closure.

The Labor Department said the decision followed an internal review of the program’s outcomes and structure and that the closures aligned with Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal. Tens of thousands of federal jobs this year have been cut in an effort by the Trump administration to slash federal spending.

According to the Labor Department, the Job Corps program faced significant financial challenges and operated at a $140 million deficit for the 2024 program year, with the deficit projected to reach $213 million for 2025.

The Labor Department’s Employment and Training Administration on April 25 released the first-ever Job Corps Transparency Report, which the department says analyzed the financial performance and operational costs of the most recently available metrics of program year 2023. The Labor Department said in a summary of findings from the report that the average graduation rate was 38.6%, the average cost per student per year was about $80,285, the average total cost per graduate was roughly $155,600 and that, post separation, participants earn $16,695 annually on average.

The summary also reported 14,913 serious incident reports for program year 2023, including instances of inappropriate sexual behavior and sexual assaults, acts of violence, breaches of safety or security, reported drug uses and total hospital visits.

Democratic U.S. Sens. Mark. Warner and Tim Kaine last week released a joint statement condemning the closures, saying the move would “abruptly eliminate crucial job training for thousands of young Americans and cut nearly 13,000 jobs across the program’s 99 centers.”

Old Dominion Job Corps did not immediately return requests for comment.