WORKPLACE

Millions in U.S. Jobs Program Are Illiterate: At least 8 million of the 20 million people in federal job training and unemployment programs cannot read well enough to succeed on the job, a Labor Department reports says. A survey of the 20 million people in the programs estimated that at least 40% lacked basic literacy skills such as filling out a job application, understanding a newspaper article or interpreting an airline schedule. The conclusions were based on an hourlong test given by the private Educational Testing Service to a sample of 6,000 people from the job training and unemployment insurance programs. The report said it was particularly disturbing that some people who either had a high school diploma or passed a high school equivalency test still showed very limited skills.