Discusses the problems related to the retraining of laid-off workers: the scarcity of jobs, the belief that retraining does not help, failure of government retraining programs, and lack of employer participation in retraining programs. Suggests that one solution is continuous retraining of workers on the job--before they are laid off. (JOW)

The current displaced worker initiative towers over the 30-year effort to bring the economically disadvantaged into the mainstream of the labor market. The Congressional Budget Office defines displacement as all workers 18 years of age and older who lose full-time employment due to slack work, job abolition, or plant closure. Major displaced…

Options for states in addressing questions relating to use of the Title III dislocated worker program of the Job Training Partnership Act are discussed. Two broad subjects are emphasized: short-term actions for aiding workers and communities suffering from economic dislocation and longer-term strategies to integrate displaced worker employment and…

This book-length report, prepared for the Subcommittee on Employment Opportunities of the House Committee on Education and Labor, describes the first comprehensive state-wide assessment of training programs--specifically the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA)--in Illinois. The introduction assesses the JTPA in Illinois, a State with high…

This report addresses two concerns of Congress: ways to reduce layoffs and the effectiveness of programs to assist dislocated workers. Section I discusses the reasons for layoffs, economic conditions of the 1980s that led to layoffs, and public policy responses to worker dislocation. Section II describes alternatives to layoffs: short-time…

A study evaluated the economic outcomes of one state-sponsored training program--the California Employment Training Panel (ETP)--which captured the benefits of private job training within a public program. It examined the impact of ETP training on a new group of 41,959 ETP trainees trained in 1990-91 in the year after training and estimated the…

This annual report covers the period July 1985 through June 1986, Program Year 1985. Part I presents findings and recommendations from Commission work on the impact of new technologies on jobs, the problems of displaced workers, and workers' increasing need for basic skills. Part II describes the major activities of the Commission in three major…

This document contains testimony from two Senate hearings on the Reemployment and Training Act of 1994 by U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich and other witnesses concerning the Act and the need for changes in the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which requires employers to notify employees of impending layoffs.…

A study examined the earnings losses suffered by a group of experienced workers who separated from their firms in the early and mid-1980s. The quarterly earnings histories of a large number of Pennsylvania workers covering the period 1974 through 1986 merged with employment information about their firms served as the data set. Workers' earnings…

This report describes 80 exemplary projects that were identified in a national survey of Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) Title III projects. It examines the likely reasons for the success of eight of the projects and discusses the policy implications of the eight case studies. Of these eight projects only one (the job training project in…

Re-employment experiences were analyzed for dislocated workers who used the services of the Employment Service (ES) during the 1980s under the Economic Dislocation and Worker Adjustment Assistance Act (EDWAA). Data came from administrative records in three states--Pennsylvania, California, and Missouri--noteworthy for differences in their…

Concern for performance management has increased sharply in recent decades in both the public and private sectors. This has been particularly true in the management of state and federally funded human resource development programs. Legislative purpose, level of use, the role of performance standards, appropriate measures of performance, target…

To assist workers dislocated as Hungary and Poland move to market economies, the governments of both countries provide their labor force with unemployment compensation and various active labor programs (ALPs). ALP impacts were examined by surveying four randomly selected samples: 7,228 ALP participants from 10 counties in Hungary; 4,414 Hungarians…

This report is an overview of the current status of farmers in the U.S. economy, with an emphasis on the characteristics of displaced farmers, the reasons for their displacement, the effects of their displacement on the economy, and some policy recommendations for the future. Following an executive summary, the report is organized in five…

This Congressional report contains the testimony presented at a hearing focusing on two bills dealing with worker retraining. The two bills, H.R. 26 and H.R. 1219, are intended to establish a system of individual training accounts in the Unemployment Trust Fund, amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 to provide that certain contributions to such…