This report provides a brief history of the Employment Services.  It discusses how PLXs funded under the Wagner-Peyser Act have been transformed by state and Federal efforts to meld PLXs into One-Stop Career Centers as well as provides an analysis of how the provision of key labor exchange services have changed during such transformation.  This report describes the benefit-cost analysis of the effects of job-matching services on UI claimants.

Specifically, the report covers the following four topics:

• Public Labor Exchanges (PLXs) Configuration – The evaluators visited 22 PLXs in six states of which 3 maintained the traditional governance system for their PLXs, 2 devolved PLX operations from state to local control, and the remainder devolved PLX operations to local control in some areas of the state while maintaining state control for other areas. 

• Benefit-Cost Analysis – The evaluators obtained and analyzed administrative data covering job seekers’ employment and earnings, as well as their receipt of PLX services and collection of unemployment insurance (UI) benefits to determine how the benefits derived from job-matching services compare to the costs.

• Performance Monitoring – The evaluators combined administrative data with official statistics to assess how the changes in job-matching systems affected the ability of managers and researchers to analyze One-StopCenter performance. 

• Improved Performance Monitoring – The evaluators determined how performance monitoring could be improved by reducing major information deficits.