The U.S. Dept. of Labor is providing a grant of nearly $2 million to provide what it describes as “pre-employment services” to about 250 workers laid off by XL Four Star Beef Inc. in Nampa, Idaho, this summer.

The National Emergency Grant of more than $1.8 million to be delivered to the Idaho Dept. of Labor will fund skill assessment and career counseling programs designed to identify education and retraining opportunities. More than 500 employees lost their jobs when the plant shut down in early June along with an XL Four Star Beef plant in Calgary, Alberta, that affected another 500 workers in Canada. (See "Canada’s XL Beef pink-slips 1,000," on Meatingplace, April 11, 2011.)

About half of the total grant will be released initially, with the rest distributed as the state demonstrates a continued need for assistance. The Labor Department distributed a total of more than $4.3 million in National Emergency Grants to Idaho in 2010 covering several industries, according to the agency’s website.