Hundreds of thousands of Americans have enrolled in federally financed training programs in recent years, only to remain out of work, The New York Times reported.

Even before the recession, job training was producing disappointing results. A study conducted for the U.S. Department of Labor tracked 160,000 laid-off workers in 12 states from mid-2003 to mid-2005 – a time of economic expansion – and found that those who went through training wound up earning little more than those who did not, even three and four years later. “Overall, it appears possible that ultimate gains from participation are small or nonexistent,” the study concluded.

In the past 18 months, the Obama administration has embraced more promising approaches to training focused on faster-growing areas like renewable energy and health care. But most money has been directed at the same sorts of programs that in past years have largely failed to steer laid-off workers toward new careers, say experts, and now the number of job openings is vastly outnumbered by people out of work.

“It’s such an ugly situation that job training can’t solve it,” said Ross Eisenbrey, a job training expert at the Economic Policy Institute, a labor-oriented research institution in Washington, and a former commissioner of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. “When you have five people unemployed for every vacancy, you can train all the people you want and unfortunately only one-fifth of the people will get hired. Training doesn’t create jobs.”

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