Several federal agencies, including the Small Business Administration (SBA), provide training and other assistance to veterans seeking civilian employment. In recent years, the unemployment rate among veterans as a whole has generally been similar to or lower than the unemployment rate for nonveterans 18 years and older. However, veterans who have…

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…

Reviews youth employment and training programs since 1962. Concludes that successful programs share the following characteristics: (1) a focus on chronic unemployment; (2) comprehensive remedial programs and human services; (3) early intervention; and (4) connections to mainstream institutions. (FMW)

This summary evaluates a federal demonstration program to reach "disconnected" youth not currently served by job training programs under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). Disconnected youth are defined as those who have lost or never developed the traditional values of their communities, who do not participate in traditional…

GAO prepared this report under the Comptroller General's authority as part of an effort to assist policy makers in determining how federal disability programs could more effectively meet the needs of individuals with disabilities and addressed it to each committee of jurisdiction. In this report, GAO assesses: (1) the extent to which state…

This report synthesizes information from many sources about state and local Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) evaluation activities and issues. The report's five sections are interrelated, but each can stand alone as a discussion piece on JTPA evaluation. The first section, on the role of evaluation in JTPA, outlines the rationale for doing…

This paper looks at performance standards and related policies as tools for influencing the direction of local programming as well as ensuring accountability throughout the service delivery system. It suggests various ways in which the different components of the Job Training Partnership Act's performance management system can be used to promote…

This report of a Congressional hearing regards the effects of the administration's 1984 budget on training and employment programs. Testimony includes statements from five individuals representing the Research Department of the United Auto Workers (UAW); the mayor of Minneapolis, Minnesota on behalf of the National League of Cities; the mayor of…

Three major types of occupational training programs in Texas were analyzed to reveal their strengths and weaknesses and the extent to which each had succeeded in resolving the dilemmas common to all forms of occupational training. These dilemmas were effectiveness and relevance, the purpose and content of training, and targeting. Firm-based…

This paper examines why the Airway Science Program, initiated by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to develop college-educated and technically prepared personnel for FAA employment (primarily for air traffic control), has failed to meet its work force goals. Research data were gathered from interviews with Airway Science Program…

Federal initiatives should be undertaken to reduce long-term structural unemployment in the United States. Long-term structural unemployment has risen during the 1970s and 1980s but is still primarily a problem of disadvantaged workers, not dislocated ones. The impact of technological change on occupations is felt mainly by the employed who are…

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…

A governor-appointed committee examined South Carolina's job training systems and developed recommendations on providing more effective and efficient job training. A consensus was first developed on conditions that currently exist in the areas of job training, job training's relationship to economic development, and services to target groups.…

This document is the first volume of a two-volume resource guide to help states and localities take advantage of new Federal initiatives to increase services to youth under the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). It summarizes the performance management principles and options available to program administrators identified in discussion papers…