Over the last four years, half a billion dollars in public funds were spent in Philadelphia in the name of workforce development -- helping residents get jobs or skills and employers find workers to sustain or expand their businesses.These services, which include training for workers and recruiting for employers, were funded largely by federal and state dollars at an annual cost that ranged from $118 million to $134 million. All of these services were free of charge to workers; most were free to employers. Had these efforts been part of city government last year, and they were not, they would have constituted its fifth biggest department, surpassed only by police, fire, prisons, and human services. Roughly 1 in 10 workingage Philadelphians ...