Today, the Ways and Means committee authorized the elimination of two full-time and two part-time jobs with the Genesee County Job Development Bureau.

The layoffs were necessary because of cutbacks in state funding for the program.

"If those funds are replenished and restored to the county, we would certainly look at reinstating those jobs," said Ways and Means Chairman Hollis Upson.

The two full-time jobs are employment and training counselors. One job was eliminated effective April 1. The other position terminates April 21.

The other positions eliminated were part-time clerk-typist positions.

The layoffs reduce the county budget by $76,990.

The Job Development Bureau will, however, continue to provide services to the area's unemployed.

“This is just a shrinking of staff," Upson said. "The same services will still be available, the same contacts are there, the same liaisons between the Department of Labor, Genesee Community College, local employers, are all still there."

Genesee County's unemployment rate stands at 9.1 percent, and recently as many as 100 local residents who have been unemployed for 99 weeks or more started losing benefits.

The resolution authorizing elimination of the positions must still be approved by the full legislature.