This report summarizes the long-term findings of a rigorous random assignment evaluation of the WorkAdvance model, a sectoral training and advancement initiative. Launched in 2011, WorkAdvance goes beyond the previous generation of employment programs by introducing demand-driven skills training and a focus on jobs that have identifiable career…

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps people with low incomes avoid hunger and afford food. It stimulates the economy, improves individuals' success at school and work, and promotes better health. SNAP's Employment and Training (E&T) program is designed to assist participants in gaining skills, training, or work experience…

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently projected record-breaking growth in 2021, but it is premature to celebrate this rosy macroeconomic picture. In the same document, the CBO also made an alarming prediction: The U.S. labor market will not fully recover until 2024. Recent U.S. jobs reports reveal the depth of the pandemic-created…

The collapse of good labor market opportunities for workers without a college degree is the elephant in the room in higher education policy discussions today. A high school diploma no longer provides a guarantee of financial security, let alone opens the door to the middle class. In response, some lawmakers and advocates have introduced a host of…

Inmates in American prisons are undereducated and underemployed. Compared to adults in the US, prisoners are at least three times more likely to be without a high school or general educational development (GED) diploma and four times less likely to have a postsecondary degree. Studies have consistently found that unemployment rates for prisoners,…

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicate that in 2016 over four million young people in the United States were "disconnected," meaning they had not been enrolled in school in the previous three months and were not working. Although this number has fallen in the years since the Great Recession (which officially ended in 2009), as the…

This report summarizes the two-year findings of a rigorous random assignment evaluation of the WorkAdvance model, a sectoral training and advancement initiative. Launched in 2011, WorkAdvance goes beyond the previous generation of employment programs by introducing demand-driven skills training and a focus on jobs that have career pathways. The…

The Worker Retraining (WRT) program is a key strategy in meeting the economic and workforce needs of Washington's workers and employers. Funded through the state legislature, the aim of WRT is to ensure dislocated and other unemployed workers have access to education and training that will help them reattach to the labor market in jobs and careers…

New York's workforce system is a complicated entity that engages nearly a dozen state agencies and myriad funding streams originating at the federal and state levels, and operates on the ground in ten economic development regions, 33 designated workforce investment areas, community-based organizations, labor unions and 62 counties. This report…

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 report presents the final results for the evaluation of the New Americans Centers (NACs) demonstration project in Arkansas and Iowa. It focuses on program operations and plans for program sustainability, while highlighting services provided through the demonstration projects in Arkansas and Iowa. It also documents outcomes for New Iowan…

Since the transition movement in the 1980s, numerous transition practices have been developed. Kohler (1993) provided a comprehensive review and analysis of transition best practices and divided them into substantiated and implied practices based on the existence of empirical evidence. Since that review was published, the field of transition has…

The Institute for Work, Skills and Training was assigned to evaluate a labor market program aimed at the integration of long-term unemployed individuals aged 50 or older. The integration should have been achieved not only by training and coaching of individuals, but also by building regional networks between labor market stakeholders within a…

Several independent analyses of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) indicate that it has achieved mixed results and has failed to effectively serve disadvantaged youth and school dropouts. It can only offer short-term, low-cost programs, and has difficulty in attracting youths. The number of dropouts being served is declining. The…

With expiration of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) impending, the United States General Accounting Office (GAO) reviewed four types of adult-oriented service: classroom training, on-the-job training, work experience, and public service employment. The GAO researched and synthesized program administrative data and the results…