Nixon transfers Job Corps to Labor Department and closes 59 centers

The Nixon administration on April 11, 1969 announced it would close 59 of 113 Job Corps centers and shift program control from the Office of Economic Opportunity to the Department of Labor. Labor Secretary George Shultz oversaw the consolidation, replacing rural conservation centers with urban manpower centers. Job Corps enrollment fell from 42,000 to about 22,000 students by the end of Nixon's first term.