More St. Pete layoffs after Trump administration cuts youth jobs program

Eckerd Connects, a Clearwater-based nonprofit that assists children, young adults and families in need, will lay off 47 employees in St. Petersburg in response to the Trump administration’s decision to cut a federal jobs program for young people.

The nonprofit notified state and local officials it was eliminating the jobs shortly after Exceed LLC announced that it was cutting 119 workers because of the closing.

Exceed and Eckerd jointly operate the Pinellas County Job Corps Center at 500 22nd St. in St. Petersburg. The center is being shut down after the U.S. Department of Labor announced it was eliminating the program.

Eckerd, in a letter posted on Florida’s Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification database Wednesday morning, a day after Exceed’s letter posted, says the job cuts will begin June 13 and last until June 30.

The Labor Department has called the shuttering of the program “a pause” but Eckerd says in the federally mandated letter that the closure is expected to be permanent.

It did, however, offer the possibility of hope, however slight, writing that “This information is based on Eckerd’s current understanding of the facts and is subject to change should additional information become available.”

The St. Petersburg center, according to Eckerd Connects' website, had a capacity for 277 students and served young people from Citrus, Flagger, Hillsborough, Lake, Levy, Marion, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Sumter and Volusia counties.

The Labor Department says in a previously released statement that its decision was made following “an internal review of the program’s outcome and structure” and that it aligned with President Donald Trump’s Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal.

The program was, according to the Labor Department’s website, aimed at helping low income youth between 16 and 24 to find work. The centers, which offered residential and non-residential options, provided both educational training and vocational training programs.

In the statement, the department said the “temporary pause and will be carried out in accordance with available funding, the statutory framework established under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and congressional notification requirements.”

There are two other centers in the state, in Miami and Jacksonville, according to a map on the Labor Department's website. Neither facility had filed a federally mandated WARN notice as of Wednesday afternoon.