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,…

Focuses on various public sector job creation programs in eight industrialized countries. Each is examined from the following perspectives: objectives and target groups; sponsors and projects; participants; organization; time limits, training and wages; effects of these programs; and policy implications. (CT)

In September 1985, the Canadian government introduced the Canadian Jobs Strategy. Two features distinguish the jobs strategy program from Canada's old job development programs and programs for purchasing job training from colleges. These features are: (1) focusing of federal support for labor market adjustment on those individuals who are most in…

The Department of Labor's Youth Incentive Entitlement Pilot Projects (YIEPP) was the nation's largest demonstration to test a new approach to solving the employment problems of disadvantaged youths. Sixteen- to 19-year-olds from low income or welfare households who had not yet graduated from high school were offered minimum-wage jobs, part-time…

The National Commission for Manpower Policy assesses the effectiveness of public service employment (PSE) programs. Reports on numbers of jobs created, types of PSE workers, and the amount and effects of job displacement caused by the policy of "fiscal substitution" in local jurisdictions. Recommendations include strengthening PSE…

A field study examined the Public Service Employment (PSE) Program's intergovernmental effects. Addressed during the study were such questions as whether the program creates jobs in local government, whether local governments give preference to disadvantaged persons, and what kinds of services are provided. To collect these data, a network of…

This study analyzes the extent to which targeting objectives of the Emergency Jobs Programs Extension Act (EJPEA) of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) programs have been achieved by federal and local officials and the effectiveness of limited-duration projects in providing useful public services. The study deals with the…

The Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) sees a strong connection between the dropout decision and unemployment in the teen years and beyond. It developed JOBSTART, a model of a project giving youths a chance to work and focusing on educational remediation, occupational training strategies, and support services to dropouts. To…

A study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit (TJTC) as observed between July 1980 and March 1981 in 25 areas throughout the United States. Findings include the following: (1) TJTC has not worked as envisioned as a self-marketing effort by vouchered individuals and new hires by employers; most employers are…

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…

The first and longest section of this publication is a comparative analysis summarizing the impacts of the two Unemployment Insurance (UI) Self-Employment Demonstration Projects in Washington State and Massachusetts. Based on the first wave of post-project follow-up surveys, this evaluation report provides results on the net impacts of each…

The Youth Incentive Entitlement Pilot Projects were set up to aid disadvantaged youths, ages 16 to 19, by guaranteeing them a part-time job during the school year and a full-time job during summer months on the condition that they remain in, or return to, a secondary school or enroll in an equivalent education program. The program was started in…

At the end of September, 1978, 37,000 low-income youths in seventeen competitively selected communities across the country were enrolled in Youth Incentive Entitlement Pilot Projects which guaranteed them a part-time job during the school year and a full-time job during summer months on the condition that they remain in, or return to, a secondary…

Through August, 1979, approximately 63,000 low-income youths in 17 areas across the country had been enrolled in Youth Incentive Entitlement Pilot Projects that guaranteed them a part-time job during the school year and a full-time job during summer months on the condition that they remain in, or return to, a secondary school or enroll in an…

Vermont's Welfare Restructuring Project (WRP), which was implemented in 1994-2001, required that single-parent welfare recipients who could not find wage-paying jobs after receiving cash assistance for 30 months accept work in subsidized, minimum-wage community service employment (CSE) positions to satisfy their work requirement and improve their…