Seventeen employees at Job Service North Dakota may lose their jobs with the agency by the end of January, the director says.

On Friday, employees were notified through the agency's intranet of 24 positions that will be cut as of Jan. 31 due to the loss of the majority of a long-time contract with the Department of Human Services. Seven of those positions are vacant, said Maren Daley, executive director of the agency.

Included in the list of positions are three statewide customer service consultants, 13 customer services specialists and one position at the central office.

Daley said management is still undergoing evaluations of individuals to decide who will lose their jobs.

The severance package will provide health insurance through Feb. 1 and a lump sum payment worth two months of regular pay.

Daley added that affected employees will receive extensive job placement assistance, particularly in state government.

"A lot of them have extensive skills,"she said, citing case management, customer service and workshop management, among other skills.

"We're looking first for suitable positions in state government so they can continue on with their retirement,"Daley said. "I think they'd be good in private industry, too."

The cuts came after Job Service North Dakota lost a majority of its Job Opportunities and BasicSkills program contract to a private company called Career Options.

The program, a federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, was designed to help hard-to-serve and under-employed clients, among others, with job placement. Career Options specializes with those clientele, said Carol Cartledge, director of public assistance for the Department of Human Services.

Job Service retained 630 clients in the contract, mostly in Cass and Rolette counties.

About 34 employees work in some capacity with the program, Daley said in a previous interview.

(Reach reporter Crystal Reid at 250-8261 or crystal.reid@;bismarcktribune.com.)