Labor Policy Research

Reports

• "Analysis of Associations Between Contemporaneous Job Corps Performance Measures and Impact Estimates from the National Job Corps Study." Jane Fortson and Peter Z. Schochet, January 2011. Conducted in 1993, the National Job Corps Study (NJCS) found Job Corps improved education and training outcomes, reduced criminal activity, and improved earnings and employment outcomes. However, impacts on key outcomes were not associated with overall center performance measures. This study analyzed the relationship between unadjusted and regression-adjusted Job Corps performance measures and center-level impact estimates from the NJCS and found the adjusted performance ratings were uncorrelated with center-level impacts.
• "An Effectiveness Assessment and Cost-Benefit Analysis of Registered Apprenticeship in 10 States." Debbie Reed, Albert Yung-Hsu Liu, Rebecca Kleinman, Annalisa Mastri, Davin Reed, Samina Sattar, and Jessica Ziegler, July 2012. This study examines Registered Apprenticeships, career-training programs administered by the Employment and Training Administration's Office of Apprenticeship in the U.S. Department of Labor, in conjunction with state apprenticeship agencies. The study found program participants had substantially higher earnings than nonparticipants, and program social benefits were much larger than costs.
• "Improving the Effectiveness of Individual Training Accounts: Long-Term Findings from an Experimental Evaluation of Three Service Delivery Models." Irma Perez-Johnson, Quinn Moore, and Robert Santillano, October 2011. According to findings from a new study, job seekers in the United States could realize potential net benefits over 20 years of approximately $41,000 per person if local workforce training agencies implemented programs that combine higher, more flexible individual limits for expenditures on state-approved training with support from training counselors. The study, funded by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, is the first long-term evaluation of the relative effects of alternative training models used under the Workforce Investment Act. It shows that moving away from the status quo to provide more flexible, higher-value training awards is cost-effective and has large, positive impacts on the long-term earnings of ITA job seekers. Study fact sheet.
• "Using TANF Funds to Support Subsidized Youth Employment: The 2010 Summer Youth Employment Initiative." Linda Rosenberg, Megan Hague Angus, Cassandra Pickens, and Michelle Derr, July 2011. In summer 2010, state and local Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and workforce agencies partnered to plan and administer summer youth employment initiatives. This study examines qualitative data collected in 10 local sites across seven states to describe these partnerships, particular aspects of the TANF-funded youth employment initiatives, and summer work experiences.
• "Employment Research in Brief: An Annotated Bibliography of ETA-Sponsored Studies." Annalisa Mastri, Emily Evans, Stacy Pancratz, and Carrie Wolfson, November 2011. This annotated bibliography provides a summary of research publications released by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, since 1995. The summarized publications include research, evaluation, and demonstration reports, as well as other papers and sets of policy recommendations. Each summary includes a brief description of the study's topic area, study sites, data and methods, and results.
• "Evidence Scan of Work Experience Programs.” Samina Sattar, May 2010. This report presents evidence on the effectiveness of interventions that include work experience as a strategy to improve employment outcomes for people with barriers to employment. The report reviews 26 years of rigorous research gathering information from 27 evaluations. The author distinguishes between interventions targeting adults versus youth, paid versus unpaid work, and length of work opportunity.
• “Reinvesting in America’s Youth: Lessons from the 2009 Recovery Act Summer Youth Employment Initiative.” Jeanne Bellotti, Linda Rosenberg, Samina Sattar, Andrea Mraz Esposito, and Jessica Ziegler, February 2010. This report examines implementation of the 2009 summer youth employment initiative, which placed more than 314,000 youth in summer jobs. As part of the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), states received $1.2 billion to fund employment and training targeted to disadvantaged youth, a group particularly hard hit by the recession. The report also details the national context for implementation, describes the experiences of 20 selected local areas, and presents lessons for future summer youth employment efforts.
• “Growing America Through Entrepreneurship: Findings from the Evaluation of Project GATE.” Jacob Benus, Sheena McConnell, Jeanne Bellotti, Theodore Shen, Kenneth Fortson, and Daver Kahvecioglu, May 2008. While many Americans dream about starting their own business and have the motivation to do so, lack of business expertise and access to credit often prevent them from realizing their dreams. Project GATE (Growing America Through Entrepreneurship) was implemented to help emerging entrepreneurs create, sustain, and/or expand their existing small business. In seven demonstration sites in Minnesota, Maine, and Pennsylvania, approximately 4,000 individuals applied for services between fall 2003 and summer 2005. Findings from a random assignment evaluation show that Project GATE increased the proportion of business ownership. However, earnings were not significantly higher among Project GATE participants compared to their control group counterparts.

Journal Articles

• "Low Skilled Immigration and Work-Fertility Tradeoffs Among High Skilled US Natives." Delia Furtado and Heinrich Hock. American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings, May 2010. This article examines the impact of low skilled immigration on the childbearing and labor supply decisions of high-education female natives of the United States. The authors find that an influx of low skilled immigrants to a city attenuates the negative relationship between female labor force participation (LFP) and fertility, leading to an increase in the proportion of women that both work and have a young child in the home. The authors argue that the smaller LFP-fertility tradeoff attributable to immigrant workers arises due to reductions in cost of childrearing. Whereas most immigration research focuses on the reduced employment prospects of natives, this paper considers the potential benefits of immigration to high skilled native women.
• "Does Job Corps Work? Impact Findings from the National Job Corps Study." Peter Z. Schochet, John Burghardt and Sheena McConnell. American Economic Review (subscription required), December 2008. This paper presents findings from an experimental evaluation of Job Corps, the nation’s largest training program for disadvantaged youths. The study used survey data collected over four years, as well as tax data collected over nine years, for a nationwide sample of 15,400 treatments and controls. The Job Corps model has promise; program participation increases educational attainment, reduces criminal activity, and increases earnings for several postprogram years. Based on tax data, however, the earnings gains were not sustained except for the oldest participants.
• “Do Job Corps Performance Measures Track Program Impacts?” Peter Z. Schochet and John Burghardt. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management (subscription required), summer 2008. This article examines the association between program performance measures and long-term program impacts, using nine-year follow-up data from a recent large-scale national experimental evaluation of Job Corps, the nation’s largest federal job training program for disadvantaged youths. The authors note that impacts on key outcomes are not associated with center performance levels. Participants in higher-performing centers had better outcomes; however, the same pattern held for controls. The program’s performance measurement system is not achieving the goal of ranking and rewarding centers on the basis of their ability to improve participant outcomes relative to what these outcomes would have been otherwise.
• "Using Propensity Scoring to Estimate Program-Related Subgroup Impacts in Experimental Program Evaluations." Peter Z. Schochet and John Burghardt. Evaluation Review (subscription required), March 2007. This article discusses the use of propensity scoring in experimental program evaluations to estimate impacts for subgroups defined by program features and participants' program experiences. The authors discuss estimation issues, provide specification tests, and review an overlooked data collection design—obtaining predictions that program intake staff make about applicants' likely assignments and experiences—that could improve the quality of matched comparison samples. They demonstrate the approach's effectiveness in producing credible subgroup findings using data from Mathematica's Job Corps evaluation.

Issue Briefs

• "Effective Case Management: Key Elements and Practices from the Field." Issue Brief. Elizabeth Laird and Pamela Holcomb, June 2011. This issue brief provides examples of key elements and practices for effective case management in the workforce system. It provides examples of state and local tools, processes, and policies designed to create or improve case management, and includes an annotated list of additional resources.
• "Integrating Intake Among Workforce Programs: Key Strategies." Issue Brief. Elizabeth Laird and Pamela Holcomb, June 2011. This issue brief provides examples of key strategies for creating a common intake process for customers throughout the workforce system. It provides examples of state and local tools, processes, and policies designed to create or improve integrated intake, and includes an annotated list of additional resources.
• "Employer Resource Networks: Uniting Businesses and Public Partners to Improve Job Retention and Advancement for Low-Wage Workers." Michelle Derr and Pamela Holcomb, June 2010. This issue brief describes the Employer Resource Network (ERN), an innovative, employer-based model that pulls together a consortium of small- to mid-size businesses to provide job retention services, work supports, and training opportunities for entry-level employees, many of whom are receiving public assistance. ERNs include strong partnerships with other service delivery systems and organizations, such as social service agencies, workforce development agencies, chambers of commerce, and community and technical colleges.