As anticipated, the Senate on Friday confirmed the nomination of Jane Oates as assistant secretary for the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA). The ETA is the DOL’s sub-agency tasked with administering federal government job training and worker dislocation programs, federal grants to states for public employment service programs, and unemployment insurance benefits. The Senate approved the nomination by voice vote, as is typical for most nominees once he or she has been approved by the applicable Senate committee. Earlier this month, the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions sanctioned Oates’s nomination to head the ETA. Oates currently is the executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education and senior policy advisor to Governor Jon S. Corzine.