BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Construction companies short of skilled workers, hospitals needing more nurses, businesses complaining they can't fined trained employees.

That was the backdrop of a 1997 labor department revamp touted by then-Gov. Mike Foster's administration as a way to make it easier for the unemployed to get training and fill the thousands of vacant jobs in Louisiana. Business and labor groups hailed the move.

Eleven years later, the complaints remain unchanged and thousands of Louisianians remain too unskilled to fill the 100,000 estimated jobs in the state. Companies still say they can't find enough skilled workers, and work force development still tops complaints for business leaders.

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