The Evaluation of the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program: A Synthesis of Major Findings

This paper presents a synthesis of findings described in detail in more than a dozen separate reports prepared as part of the Evaluation of the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Program. The evaluation focused on providing answers to two broad questions: (1) Is TAA effective in helping workers rebound from their job losses?, and (2) What services are delivered to participants? To answer these questions we collected and analyzed data of a variety of types, including administrative data, data from surveys of TAA participants and a statistically matched comparison group of Unemployment Insurance (UI) claimants not eligible for TAA, and data from site visits conducted from 2004 to 2011 to 34 states and more than 100 local offices.