Is 'Ready NOW!' worth $10K?

ALLENDALE, Mich. (WOOD) - The Ready NOW! -- which guarantees job seekers three interviews upon completion of a three-day program -- costs more than $10,000, organizers say.

"That's ($10,000) from the MEDC, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. And again, that's the hard dollars. We've got a lot of other dollars that people are putting in other labor," said Joel Westmaas of Ottawa County's Michigan Works!. "It doesn't represent maybe more than a quarter of the total expense of it, really."

Westmaas said it is worth the price for taxpayers.

"I would say the cost of an individual to be unemployed, and particularly the cost of the individual who is unemployed, and the person who falls on hard times, their home is foreclosed or on public assistance, that's a huge expense to the taxpayer. I mean, if we're looking at stable communities, and we're looking at economic growth, and we're looking at successful families, there's a huge benefit to employment," Westmaas said.

== Watch the full interview above ==