While the COVID-19 pandemic has led to high unemployment rates overall, low-wage workers have been hit particularly hard. It is likely that many of the jobs lost as a result of the current recession will never return, even as new jobs are created. Some job seekers may have to learn new skills so they can find employment in a new field. Sector…

When the COVID-19 pandemic plunged the economy back into recession in early 2020, it laid bare a fragile and profoundly inequitable labor market. The economic expansion that reigned from 2009 through 2019 brought historically low unemployment and inflation but failed to reduce income inequality or arrest the decline in the number of high-quality,…

Enacted in 2014, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) brought numerous changes to existing federal employment and training programs, including requiring the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Education (Education) to implement a common performance accountability system across the six WIOA-designated core programs. WIOA…

This guide is intended to assist Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) program policymakers, planners, and program operators to understand the provisions and possibilities afforded by the JTPA. The first section provides an overview of the JTPA. Discussed next are the following aspects of the JTPA planning and administration system: federal funding…

A survey of 10 states indicated the presence of hiring procedures that discourage or limit public-sector supported employment for persons having severe disabilities. Survey results, and recommendations for state system change to promote supported employment, are presented in 4 areas: civil service examination requirements, job classification…

This guide is intended to help state legislators enact legislation and create programs of job training within the provisions of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). The guide's five sections cover the following: job training policy (an introduction); establishing oversight of a state's job training resources; the state legislature and the…

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) focuses on integrating and streamlining services, requiring that most employment and training services, including those provided under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant, be provided through the One-Stop Center System. States are implementing WIA, but not all will have all steps…

The Youth Incentive Entitlement Pilot Projects demonstration has been the most ambitious attempt thus far to determine the feasibility of using private employers to provide a work experience in a youth employment program. In establishing this demonstration, congress authorized program operators to recruit private businesses as well as the…

A formal review was conducted to assess the efforts made by federal agencies to implement the 1983 Emergency Jobs Appropriations Act (EJAA). (The EJAA provided emergency supplemental appropriations to provide productive employment for jobless Americans, to hasten or initiate federal projects and construction of lasting value to the nation, and to…

This guide focuses on these two key challenges that states and localities have identified as important for the long-term success of welfare reform and work force development efforts: helping low-income parents sustain employment (steady work) and advance in the work force (better jobs). The guide consists of five parts and is structured to…

These Congressional hearings contain testimony dealing with the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). Included among those persons providing testimony at the hearings were representatives of the following agencies and organizations: the National Governors' Association, the Department of Labor, the Office of Management and Budget, the National…

This guide is intended to assist community-based organizations (CBOs) in developing Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) programs that will provide needed services to their constituents. First, the history and implications of JTPA are summarized from a CBO viewpoint. Discussed in a chapter on JTPA funding categories are such topics as allocation…

Wisconsin Works (W-2) is a time-limited employment assistance program that, in September 1997, replaced cash entitlements provided to low-income families under Aid to Families with Dependent Children. W-2 provides subsidized or unsubsidized placements for participants, based upon their level of preparedness for employment. Participants in both…

The major goals of the New Mexico Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) in 1985 were to enhance Indian education concerns, aid tribes in economic development, and effectuate a smooth working relationship between state, local, and tribal governments in the spirit of and through the use of the Joint Powers Act. Advancement is reflected in all these areas.…

This guide is intended to assist Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) program policymakers, planners, and program operators develop JTPA programs and activities. Discussed first are JTPA participant eligibility criteria and ways of assuring that competing groups can receive services in an equitable manner that is consistent with the intent of JTPA.…